The United States appeared set Friday to repatriate a group of Yemenis held at Guantanamo Bay, perhaps paving the way for the removal of one of the biggest obstacles in shutting down the prison.
Ninety-seven of the 210 detainees still held at the “war on terror” prison in Cuba are from Yemen, but US officials fear the country lacks the security resources to ensure that Guantanamo returnees will not join militant groups.
Six Yemenis and four Afghans would be released from the controversial detention camp on the southern tip of Cuba in the coming days, said a report in the Washington Post, citing sources close to the case.
In Sanaa, a senior official in the Yemeni foreign ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the report and said the repatriation would happen in “the coming days.”
There was no immediate US government confirmation and a Yemeni source in Washington said there “is no final decision on the subject.”
This second Yemeni source, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, had a different number of prisoners being released. “I was aware of four,” the source told AFP.
There have been months of high-level meetings between senior US and Yemeni government officials, including a visit to Sanaa by deputy CIA director Stephen Kappes, The Washington Post reported Friday.
If the transfer goes well US officials are prepared to repatriate more Guantanamo Yemenis and 34 of those still at the camp have been cleared for release, according to the Post.
Any former Guantanamo detainees arriving back in Yemen would not be immediately released, the Yemeni source in Washington assured.
Yemen “never had a case where a prisoner was transferred and released immediately,” the source told AFP. “You have to go through a judiciary process, then a law enforcement process and then after that, that decides what happens.”
One of those already to be allowed back to Yemen was Osama bin Laden’s former driver Salim Hamdan, who had been held at Guantanamo for seven years. He was sent to Yemen in December 2008 and released in mid-January.
President Barack Obama acknowledged in November that he would miss the self-imposed January deadline to close down the Guantanamo prison.
US officials said Tuesday that a batch of Guantanamo detainees will be transferred to a maximum-security prison in the northern US state of Illinois.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said the administration intends to release or extradite 116 Guantanamo detainees to either countries of origin or to third countries willing to accept them.
Eleven of the 116 won their release by challenging their detentions through the US federal court system, including seven Chinese Uighurs who the US Supreme Court is considering for release on US soil, which would be a first for Guantanamo detainees.
Of the remaining 94 not considered ready for release, 11 have been ordered to stand trial, five in reformed military tribunals and six, including the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in a civilian federal court in New York.
There is insufficient evidence to try some of the remaining 83, who face either military tribunals or civilian trials. Many of them are also considered too dangerous for release, meaning they face indefinite detention.
