{"id":38506,"date":"2025-01-01T12:59:41","date_gmt":"2025-01-01T20:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=38506"},"modified":"2025-01-01T12:59:42","modified_gmt":"2025-01-01T20:59:42","slug":"pentagon-repatriates-guantanamo-detainee-held-without-charge-for-over-two-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/01\/01\/pentagon-repatriates-guantanamo-detainee-held-without-charge-for-over-two-decades\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon Repatriates Guant\u00e1namo Detainee Held Without Charge for Over Two Decades"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Protesters<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Human rights activists organized a protest in front of the White House and called for the release of detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guant\u00e1namo Bay on December 4, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo: Celal Gunes\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move came as the Biden administration faced pressure to clear the notorious military prison of all uncharged detainees before Donald Trump takes office.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

JAKE JOHNSON<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dec 31, 2024 (CommonDreams.org)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Biden administration announced late Monday that it transferred a Tunisian man who was never charged with a crime out of the notorious Guant\u00e1namo Bay military prison in Cuba, a move that came more than a decade after the detainee was approved for release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The man, 59-year-old Ridah bin Saleh al-Yazidi, had been held at Guant\u00e1namo since the day former U.S. President George W. Bush opened the prison camp in 2002. The Pentagon said in a statement<\/a> Monday that al-Yazidi has been repatriated to the government of Tunisia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With al-Yazidi’s transfer, there are now 26 detainees remaining at Guant\u00e1namo, the majority of whom<\/a> have never been charged with a crime and have been approved for release from the prison, which United Nations experts have said<\/a> is “defined by the systematic use of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.” More detainees have died at Guant\u00e1namo than have been convicted of a crime, according to<\/a> the human rights group Reprieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Biden administration said<\/a> in 2021 that it intended to shutter the prison, and critics have accused<\/a> the administration of “a lack of courage” as it has dragged its feet on the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But human rights campaigners have welcomed<\/a> recent progress. Al-Yazidi was the fourth Guant\u00e1namo detainee in two weeks to be transferred from the prison by the Biden administration, which has faced growing pressure<\/a> to clear the camp of the remaining uncharged men before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump<\/a> takes power next month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Fifteen men remain who have never been charged with any crimes and have long been cleared by U.S. security agencies to leave Guant\u00e1namo, some for more than a decade,” Daphne Eviatar, director of the Security With Human Rights program at Amnesty International<\/a> USA, said in a statement earlier this month after the Biden administration announced the transfer of three never-charged men out of the prison camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“President Biden must transfer these men before he leaves office, or he will continue to bear responsibility for the abhorrent practice of indefinite detention without charge or trial by the U.S. government,” said Eviatar. “It has been 23 years; President Biden can, and must, put an end to this now.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transfer was announced on the same day that a Pentagon appeals panel “upheld a military judge’s finding that the plea deals in the September 11 case are valid, clearing the way at least for now for a guilty plea hearing next week with the accused mastermind of the attack, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed,” The New York Times<\/em>reported<\/a> Monday. Mohammed is among the Guant\u00e1namo detainees who have been charged with a crime by a military commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Col. Matthew N. McCall, the judge in the case,\u00a0had ruled<\/a>\u00a0that Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III acted too late and beyond the scope of his authority when\u00a0he rescinded the three deals<\/a>\u00a0on August 2,\u00a0two days after<\/a>\u00a0a senior Pentagon appointee had signed them,” the\u00a0Times<\/em>\u00a0reported. “Under the pretrial agreements, or PTAs, Mr. Mohammed and two co-defendants\u00a0agreed to plead guilty to war crimes charges<\/a>\u00a0in exchange for life prison sentences rather than face a death-penalty trial.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JAKE JOHNSON<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Human rights activists organized a protest in front of the White House and called for the release of detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guant\u00e1namo Bay on December 4, 2024. \u00a0(Photo: Celal Gunes\/Anadolu via Getty Images) The move came as the Biden administration faced pressure to clear the notorious… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38506"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38506"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38507,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38506\/revisions\/38507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}