US transfers 12 more Guantanamo detainees News
US transfers 12 more Guantanamo detainees

[JURIST] The US has transferred [DOJ press release] 12 more Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees to their home governments, the Justice Department announced Sunday. Describing the transfers as having taken place "over the weekend", the Department indicated that

four Afghan detainees, Abdul Hafiz, Sharifullah, Mohamed Rahim and Mohammed Hashim, were transferred to the Government of Afghanistan. In addition, two Somali detainees, Mohammed Soliman Barre and Ismael Arale, were transferred to regional authorities in Somaliland. Finally, six Yemeni detainees, Jamal Muhammad Alawi Mari, Farouq Ali Ahmed, Ayman Saeed Abdullah Batarfi, Muhammaed Yasir Ahmed Taher, Fayad Yahya Ahmed al Rami and Riyad Atiq Ali Abdu al Haf, were transferred to the Government of Yemen.
Earlier this week, a judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] granted Yemeni Guantanamo Bay detainee Saeed Hatim's petition for habeas corpus, ordering his release. Hatim's release came just two days after Judge Thomas Hogan denied [transcript, PDF] Yemeni Guantanamo detainee Musa'ab Al-Madhwani's petition for habeas corpus, ruling that the government may continue to detain him [JURIST report].

THIS DAY @ LAW

Ku Klux Klan founded

The US hate group known as the Ku Klux Klan was founded on December 24, 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee as a reaction to reconstruction efforts following the Union victory in the American Civil War. The group would later become notorious for its attacks on Black Americans, being targeted by the Enforcement Act of 1871, which imposed civil and criminal liability for deprivation of constitutional rights. Read the Enforcement Act of 1871.  

Hamid Karzai born

On December 24, 1957, Hamid Karzai was born in Karz, Afghanistan. He would go on to become in 2004 his country's first elected president after the end of Taliban rule in 2001.