A U.S. government review panel authorized the release of five men detained at Guantanamo Bay, as the prison marks 20 years in operation.
The five prisoners - three Yemenis, one Somalian and one Kenyan - are unlikely to be released any time soon, however, as the Biden administration works to find a nation willing to host them.
None of the men approved for release have been charged with a crime; they've been held as 'law of war' detainees, or prisoners of the war on terrorism.
Approved for transfer are Yemenis Moath al-Alwi, Zuhail al-Sharabi and Omar al-Rammah, Kenyan Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu and Guled Hassan Duran of Somalia, according to the New York Times. All are in their 40s.
Duran was the first 'high value' prisoner approved for transfer, with security measures, as he was the first detainee brought from a CIA black site to be approved for release.
Captured in 2004 on alleged involvement with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, Duran cannot return to his home country due to a congressional prohibition on the transfer of Guantánamo detainees to Somalia, Libya, Syria and Yemen.
Kenyan Bajabu was arrested in 2007 for a suspected role in the 2002 car bombing in his homeland that killed 13 people at the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel.
A U.S. government review panel authorized the release of five men detained at Guantanamo Bay, as the prison marks 20 years in operation
The five prisoners - three Yemenis, one Somalian and one Kenyan - are unlikely to be released any time soon, however, as the Biden administration works to find a nation willing to host them
About 800 prisoners, each of whose care and detention costs tens of millions per year, have passed through Guantanamo, many without ever being charged with a crime
Alwi, perhaps the best-known of the five men, was considered by the board to be a low-level trainee with no leadership role in al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
In 2018, replicas of ships Alwi built from objects in his prison cellblock were featured in a New York art show. Shortly after, the Defense Department declared prisoners' art
