US Transfers Guantanamo Detainee Back to Afghanistan

© AP Photo / Alex BrandonIn this Aug. 29, 2021, file photo reviewed by U.S. military officials, a flag flies at half-staff in honor of the U.S. service members and other victims killed in the terrorist attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, as seen from Camp Justice in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba.
In this Aug. 29, 2021, file photo reviewed by U.S. military officials, a flag flies at half-staff in honor of the U.S. service members and other victims killed in the terrorist attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, as seen from Camp Justice in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. - Sputnik International, 1920, 24.06.2022
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WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US government has transferred an Afghan detainee from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility to Afghanistan, the Department of Defense said in a statement on Friday.
“The Department of Defense announced today the transfer of Asadullah Haroon al-Afghani also known as 'Gul' from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to facilitate his repatriation to Afghanistan, his native country,” the statement said. “The Department of Defense, in coordination with other USG departments, transferred Mr. Gul in accordance with the US District of Columbia’s order granting his Writ of Habeas Corpus, ruling the United States no longer has a legal basis to justify the continued detention of Mr. Gul.”
The Defense Department determined in October that Gul is eligible for transfer, the statement added.
US media reported that Gul spent 15 years in US custody and was first transferred to Qatar, where local officials handed him over to representatives of the Afghan government thereby completing his repatriation.
At the time of his capture in 2007, the US government considered Gul to be a commander of a militia that fought against the United States alongside terrorist organizations. However, the militia reached a peaceful agreement in 2016 with the Afghan government in 2016, which was a US ally, and that created doubts about the legal basis of Gul's detention. By 2021, the Afghan government of then President Ashraf Ghani filed a petition in US court seeking Gul's release.
The US court considered Gul’s detention as being unlawful, but at the time of the ruling the Taliban (under UN sanctions for terrorism) ousted the Ghani government, so Washington suspended the process of Gul's transfer, the report said.
Now, the transfer was approved by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, while the Justice Department filed notice in Gul’s federal case in May, the report added.
After Gul’s transfer, the number of detainees in the Guantanamo Bay facility have been reduced to 36 and 20 of them may be released if the US government finds countries who are ready to receive them, according to the report.
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