GUANTánAMO BAY, Cuba — The U.S. military repatriated a prisoner to Algeria on Thursday who has been held at Guantánamo without charge for more than two decades, as the Biden administration continues efforts to reduce the number of prisoners. prisoners at the Navy base.
Prisoner, Bin Brahim bin Umran Bakush saidThe 52-year-old was among about 20 low-ranking fighters suspected of being raided by Pakistani security services during a 2002 raid in Faisalabad on homes believed to be Al Qaeda safe havens. The suspected fighters were eventually brought to Guantanamo Bay.
my release leaves only one prisoner captured in the raid remains at the Pentagon prison in Cuba. Others have been transferred or repatriated.
Lawyers who tried to speak to Mr Bakush described him as a recluse. He boycotted hearings into his release and spent most of his time in his cell at Camp 6, the prison building that houses co-operative prisoners and is allowed to eat and drink. , pray and watch TV together.
H. Candace Gorman, the Chicago defense attorney who has represented Mr. Bakush for the past 17 years, said he stopped seeing her in 2017 or 2018.
He has never been married and has no children but may have family far away in Algeria, she said in an email. This year is his 22nd month of Ramadan while in US custody.
At first, US forces identified the prisoner as a Libyan named Ali Abdul Razzaq, and that name appeared in his federal court records. But over time, he identified himself as Said bin Brahim bin Umran Bakush and said he was Algerian.
At the time of his 2021 hearing, US intelligence agencies concluded that he “may have attended basic and advanced training in Afghanistan and subsequently served as an instructor at a extremist camp before being arrested.”
A U.S. military officer representing Bakush’s interests said “he likes to be alone and spends a lot of time in his cell,” adding that he has little education and is eager to buy a car. Load and become a delivery driver.
In 2018, lawyers tried to use his case to ask federal courts to set a higher standard for assessing intelligence gathered about men over the past few days. the first of Guantanamo Bay. But the attempt failed.
They also argue that, as detainees approach two decades of incarceration, the U.S. government should be required to demonstrate a detainee’s future danger in a manner similar to a cam. civil union for mental reasons. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case in 2021.
Bakush’s repatriation is the sixth transfer in six months by the Biden administration, which in statements described each release as consistent with its goal of “responsibly and ultimately reducing the prisoner population” is to close the Guantánamo Bay facility.”
Now, 16 of the 30 men held there are eligible for transfer, but require more complicated diplomatic negotiations than recent repatriations. They include 11 Yemenis, one Libyan and one Somali who, by law, cannot return to their homeland. Negotiations to find countries to host some of those men date back to the Obama administration.
In addition, the attorney for a war criminal admitted, Abd al-Hadi al-Iraq, is looking for a country to accept him as part of a plea agreement that will provide him with medical care. Mr. Hadi, in his 60s, is disabled by a worsening spine condition and has undergone six back and neck surgeries at Guantánamo Bay since 2017. Over the years, he 780 Men and boys were detained at Guantánamo Bay, with a maximum population of about 660 in 2003. All were sent there during the George W. Bush administration.
