US releases Guantanamo Bay prisoner held since day 1
Ridah bin Saleh al-Yazidi’s transfer back to Tunisia was approved more than a decade ago
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Your support makes all the difference.A prisoner who has been held at Guantanamo Bay since the day it opened over 20 years ago has been released, the Pentagon said.
Ridah bin Saleh al-Yazidi’s transfer back to Tunisia was approved more than a decade ago, and he was never charged, but authorities have only just confirmed his repatriation.
The 59-year-old spent years in the notorious prison because deals could not be made to repatriate or resettle him, according to TheNew York Times. In a secret operation, al-Yazidi was airlifted from the military base, the paper reported.
Al-Yazidi, who was sent to the prison on January 11, 2002, is one of the prisoners pictured kneeling in an iconic photo from the facility.
He is the last of a dozen Tunisian men once held at Guantanamo. Of those remaining, seven face active cases.
In a statement, the U.S. military said it had worked with authorities in Tunisia for the “responsible transfer” of al-Yazidi.
Al-Yazidi was captured with a group by Pakistani forces near the Afghan border in December 2001, according to the Times, citing a 2007 prison assessment. Some of the group were suspected of being bodyguards to Osama Bin Laden.
He was described in the assessment as a dangerous detainee, who was “hostile” to guards at the prison and threw a cup of tea at a U.S. soldier, according to the Times.
By 2010, it was deemed by an Obama administration task force that Al-Yazidi could not be prosecuted for war crimes and was eligible for release to another country.
A former State Department staffer who arranged prisoner and detainee transfers told the Times that the delay was due to Tunisia being deemed “too dangerous” or the nation was “uninterested” in taking Al-Yazidi.
“He could have been gone a while ago but for Tunisian foot-dragging,” Ian Moss told the newspaper.
Many imprisoned at Guantanamo over the years were subjected to torture, including waterboarding, sleep deprivation, sexual harassment and physical abuse. Some were also tortured at CIA “black sites” prior to their arrival.
Barack Obama issued an executive order to close the facility on his second day in the White House in 2009 and the prison population was reduced from 245 to 41 detainees during his two terms in office.
However, Obama ultimately failed to close down the facility.
The Biden administration has since moved to reduce the population in the prison. There are now 26 men being held at Guantanamo, down from a peak population of about 700 Muslim men detained abroad and brought to the military facility in the years after the September 11 attacks.
Two of the 26 have been convicted and sentenced by the military commission. The Biden administration, pressed by rights groups to free remaining Guantanamo detainees held without charge, transferred out three other men this month.
The U.S. says it is searching for suitable and stable countries willing to receive the remaining 14.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
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