WASHINGTON (AP) — An Algerian prisoner at Guantánamo Bay detention center who was held for nearly 20 years has been released and returned to his country.
The US Department of Defense announced on Saturday that Sufyian Barhoumi had been repatriated with assurances from the Algerian government that he would be treated humanely there and that security measures would be in place to reduce the risk of a future threat from him.
The Pentagon did not provide any information on security measures that could include travel restrictions.
Barhoumi was captured in Pakistan in 2002 and taken to the US base in Guantánamo. The United States later concluded that he was linked to various extremist groups but was not a member of al-Qaeda or the Taliban, according to a report by a board of Trustees Prison Review, which approved his release in 2016.
US authorities attempted to prosecute Barhoumi in 2008, but efforts stalled after legal challenges were brought to the original version of the military commission system instituted under President George W. Bush.
In the final days of Barack Obama’s presidency in January 2017, a federal judge in Washington declined to intervene in the Pentagon’s decision not to deport Barhoumi, whose attorney said he hoped his client would be released and that the prisoner’s family would be able to do so have begun preparations for his return, including buying a car and a small restaurant for his return.
The Justice Department said then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter denied Barhoumi’s release on Jan. 12, 2017 “due to material concerns shared by multiple agencies,” without elaborating.
Barhoumi, who lost four fingers in a mine blast in Afghanistan, offered to plead guilty to each charge in 2012, hoping to receive a stiff sentence and return home to see his elderly mother, his attorney Shayana said Kadidal of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Source: Associated Press