[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced [press release] Tuesday that three Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees had been transferred to the country of Georgia [BBC profile]. The transfer was approved by unanimous consent of the Guantanamo Review Task Force, an inter-agency group that reviewed several factors regarding the detainees, including security. The identities of the released detainees are being withheld due to security and privacy concerns. The DOJ stated that the US "is grateful to Georgia for its willingness to support US efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay facility." More than 580 detainees have been transferred from Guantanamo Bay since 2002. With the departure of these last three detainees, 183 detainees remain [AP report] in the military prison.

This latest transfer comes after the Supreme Court on Monday declined to rule [JURIST report] in Kiyemba II, a case regarding issues surrounding the transfer of Uighur Guantanamo Bay detainees. Also on Monday, a judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the release of Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Guantanamo detainee who had been accused of planning the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In February, four detainees were transferred to Albania and Spain [JURIST report]. Other countries that have accepted transfers include Latvia, Switzerland, Slovakia, Afghanistan, Palau, Bermuda, Algeria, and Somaliland [JURIST reports]. The Obama administration failed to meet its deadline [JURIST report] of closing the prison by January 2010 after running into several hurdles, including opposition from members of Congress and the suspension of detainee transfers to Yemen [JURIST report].