As part of its alleged “desire not to hold detainees any longer than necessary,” the Pentagon announced on Tuesday that two Guantánamo prisoners had been transferred to Algeria. This follows the repatriation of two other Algerians – Mustafa Hamlili and Abdul Raham Houari – at the start of July, who were the first Algerians to be released from the prison in its six-and-a-half year history.
Cynics could argue, with some justification, that the releases were less to do with benevolence than with the fact that the U.S. administration has finally decided to clear out as much of the dead wood at Guantánamo as possible, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s momentous decision, in June, that the prisoners have constitutional habeas corpus rights; in other words, that they have the right to challenge the basis of their long detention without charge or trial before an impartial judge.
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