US army releases long-held Guantanamo detainee to Tunisia
Switch of Ridah bin Saleh al-Yazidi from the US military jail in Cuba is the fourth in two weeks by the outgoing Biden administration.
The Pentagon has launched a Tunisian detainee held in Guantanamo Bay because the first day the infamous jail camp opened in 2002 with out ever being charged.
Ridah bin Saleh al-Yazidi was repatriated from the USA army jail in Cuba to Tunisia on Monday, the US Division of Protection mentioned in an announcement.
The switch is the fourth in two weeks by the outgoing Biden administration in a quest to scale back the army jail’s inhabitants, which held 40 prisoners when Biden took workplace in 2020.
Al-Yazidi was “decided transfer-eligible by a rigorous interagency overview course of”.
“On Jan 31, 2024, Secretary of Protection [Lloyd] Austin notified Congress of his intent to help this repatriation and, in session with our companion in Tunisia, we accomplished the necessities for accountable switch,” the Pentagon mentioned.
Al-Yazidi, 59, was by no means charged with a criminal offense by the US and was authorized for switch greater than a decade in the past, however no settlement with Tunisia’s authorities was made till now to convey him dwelling.
Pakistani troopers seized al-Yazidi close to the border with Afghanistan in December 2001, and he was suspected of being an al-Qaeda fighter, The New York Occasions reported.
Twenty-six detainees stay at Guantanamo Bay with 14 eligible for switch, the assertion mentioned.
Three inmates are eligible for a periodic overview of their standing, seven are at the moment concerned within the army commissions course of, and two detainees have been convicted and sentenced, it added.
Al-Yazidi was despatched to the jail the day it opened on January 11, 2002, to accommodate detainees captured throughout the US’s so-called “warfare on terror” after the September 11, 2001, assaults.
Positioned on the US army base in Cuba, the jail operates beneath a authorized system led by army commissions that don’t assure the identical rights as conventional US courts.
Inmates cleared for launch generally spend years at Guantanamo as Washington appears to be like for nations to take them after they’re freed, with some governments unwilling to take them again or in.
Guantanamo Bay as soon as housed almost 800 prisoners, a lot of whom initially hung out at covert CIA areas often called “black websites” the place some have been tortured beneath an “enhanced interrogation” programme authorised by former President George W Bush’s administration.
The ability grew to become a long-lasting image of US abuses throughout that period. President Barack Obama, who succeeded Bush, promised to shut down the ability, however he failed largely due to authorized technicalities and home political opposition.
