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WASHINGTON (AP) –
The Biden administration transferred an inmate from Guantánamo Bay to his home country for the first time on Monday, a change in policy of the Trump presidency who repatriated a Moroccan years after being recommended for release.
The prisoner, Abdullatif Nasser, in his 50s, was cleared for repatriation by a review board in July 2016, but remained in Guantanamo under President Donald Trump. In announcing his transfer on Monday, the Pentagon cited the board’s determination that Nasser’s detention was no longer necessary to protect US national security.
Nasser, also known as Abdul Latif Nasser, arrived in Morocco on Monday, where police arrested him and said they would investigate him on suspicion of terrorist acts – although he never been charged in Guantánamo.
The State Department said in a statement that President Joe Biden’s administration would pursue “a deliberate and thorough process” to reduce the prison population at Guantánamo “while preserving the security of the United States and its allies.” A senior administration official who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal deliberations told reporters on Monday that the Biden administration was engaged in the process with the aim of eventually shutting down the Guantánamo Bay facility.
Of the 39 detainees remaining at Guantanamo, 10 are eligible for transfer, 17 are eligible to go through the review process for a possible transfer, 10 others are involved in the military commission process used to prosecute detainees and two have been convicted, one said an administration official.
Biden administration has not explained how it will handle ongoing efforts to prosecute five men detained at Guantanamo for the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
The detention center opened in 2002. President George W. Bush’s administration transformed what had been a sleepy navy outpost on the southeastern tip of Cuba into a place to interrogate and imprison people. people suspected of having links with al-Qaida and the Taliban after September 11.
The Obama administration, seeking to allay concerns that some of those released had “returned to action,” has put in place a process to ensure that those repatriated or resettled in third countries no longer pose a threat. He also planned to try some of the men in federal court.
But the shutdown effort was thwarted when Congress banned the transfer of prisoners from Guantanamo to the United States, including for prosecution or medical treatment. President Barack Obama finally freed 197 prisoners. With the transfer of Nasser, the population of Guantanamo rises to 39.
Prisoner transfer process stalled under Trump, who said even before taking office there should be no further releases of “Gitmo”, as Guantánamo Bay is often called. “They are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed to return to the battlefield,” he said.
The possibility of former Guantánamo prisoners resuming hostile activities has long been a concern that has played into the release debate. The office of the director of national intelligence said in a 2016 report that about 17% of the 728 detainees who had been released had been “confirmed” and 12% were “suspected” of resuming such activities.
But the vast majority of these re-engagements have taken place with former prisoners who did not pass the security exam put in place under Obama. A task force comprising agencies such as the Defense Ministry and the CIA analyzed who was being held at Guantanamo and determined who could be released and who should remain in detention.
The United States thanked Morocco for facilitating Nasser’s transfer home.
“The United States commends the Kingdom of Morocco for its long-standing partnership in protecting the national security interests of both countries,” the Pentagon statement said. “The United States is also extremely grateful for the Kingdom’s willingness to support the ongoing American efforts to close the Guantánamo Bay detention center. “
In a statement, the public prosecutor at the Rabat Court of Appeal indicated that the national division of the judicial police in Casablanca had been charged with opening an investigation into Nasser “for suspicion of terrorist acts”. He did not specify what these “terrorist acts” are.
Nasser’s lawyer in Morocco, Khalil Idrissi, said the judicial authorities should not “take measures which prolong his torment and suffering, especially since he has been through the hell of Guantanamo”. Idrissi said he hoped the investigation into Nasser would not “continue to deprive him of his freedom” so that he can finally “meet his family”.
He said that Nasser’s years at Guantanamo “were unwarranted and outlawed, and what he suffered remains a stain of shame on the front of the American system.”
Nasser first learned he was going to be released in the summer of 2016, when one of his lawyers called him to the detention center and told him that the United States had decided that he was no longer a threat and that he could return home. He thought he would soon be back in Morocco: “I’ve been here for 14 years,” he said at the time. “A few more months is nothing.
Nasser’s trip to the Cuban prison was a long one. He was a member of a non-violent but illegal Moroccan Sufi Islam group in the 1980s, according to his Pentagon file. In 1996 he was recruited to fight in Chechnya but ended up in Afghanistan, where he trained in an al-Qaida camp. He was captured after fighting US forces there and sent to Guantanamo in May 2002.
An unidentified military official appointed to represent him before the review board said he studied mathematics, computer science and English at Guantanamo, creating an Arabic-English dictionary of 2,000 words. The official told the board that Nasser “deeply regrets his past actions” and expressed confidence that he would reintegrate into society.
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AP writer Tarik El-Barakah contributed to this report from Rabat, Morocco.
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