US frees last Guantanamo detainees deemed not enemy combatants News
US frees last Guantanamo detainees deemed not enemy combatants

[JURIST] The US Department of Defense (DOD) [official website] announced Friday that it had released three detainees [press release] from Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] who Combatant Status Review Tribunals [DOD materials] had determined not to be enemy combatants [JURIST news archive]. The US Department of State [official website] said [press release] later that the government of Albania has agreed to accept and resettle the three, identified as an Algerian national, an Egyptian national, and an ethnic Uzbek born in the former Soviet Union. The State Department specified that they were "the last remaining Guantanamo detainees determined to be no longer enemy combatants," apparently ending the limbo in which a number of prisoners deemed eligible for release have found themselves. In May, Albania accepted for resettlement [JURIST report] five ethnic Uighurs who had previously been held at Guantanamo Bay but who the US refused to send back to China, their country of citizenship.

DOD reports that there are still approximately 430 individuals being detained at Guantanamo, including about 110 already been found eligible for transfer or release. AP has more.

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