[JURIST] A federal judge on Friday ordered the release [order, PDF] of Algerian Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee Farhi Saeed Bin Mohammed. Judge Gladys Kessler directed the government to "take all necessary and approrpriate steps to facilitate [Fari Saeed's] release forthwith." The order resulted from a civil action brought against the US government for unlawfully detaining [Miami Herald report] Farhi Saeed since 2002. Kessler's opinion remains classified pending review.

Thirty other Guantanamo Bay detainees have been released based on unlawful detention suits since the US Supreme Court's 2008 decision in Boumediene v. Bush [opinion, PDF; JURIST report]. Earlier this month, lawyers for four Uighurs at Guantanamo Bay filed a petition for certiorari [JURIST report] with the Supreme Court, challenging an appellate ruling [JURIST report] which prohibited courts from preventing the transfer of detainees to foreign countries for fear of prosecution or torture.