US Military Repatriates Prisoner To Algeria - Report

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th April, 2023) The US military repatriated a detainee to Algeria who spent over 20 years at Guantanamo prison without any charges, The New York Times reported on Thursday

The 52-year-old prisoner Said bin Brahim bin Umran Bakush was one of 20 suspected low-level fighters, who were captured by Pakistani forces in the city of Faisalabad in 2002 and taken to Guantanamo Bay. With his transfer, which became the sixth in the last six months, only one person captured during that raid remains in prison, while all others were transferred or repatriated, the report said.

Currently, only 30 detainees are left in Guantanamo, it added.

US military identified Bakush in the very beginning as a Libyan national named Ali Abdul Razzaq. However, later he identified himself as Said bin Brahim bin Umran Bakush and said he was Algerian, according to the report.

US intelligence had concluded that Bakush "probably" was trained in Afghanistan and then served as an instructor at an extremist camp prior to his capture.

A US officer, who represented his interests, described him as an introverted person who preferred to stay alone and spent most of the time in his cell.

Bakush's lawyer H. Candace Gorman, who represented him for the past 17 years, said he stopped meeting with her five or six years ago. He was never married and has no children, the lawyer added.

As of now, 16 of the 30 detainees, who remain at the Guantanamo prison, are eligible for transfers, but their cases require more complex diplomatic negotiations, the report said.

The Guantanamo Bay military prison for international terrorists was established within the US's Guantanamo Bay Naval Base on Cuba after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Representatives of international organizations, including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the United Nations and Amnesty International appealed to the new US administration to speed up the closure of the Guantanamo Bay camp amid continuing reports regarding the torture of prisoners and human rights violations there.