Dec 16, 2008 8:35 am US/Pacific
Lawyer: 3 Guantanamo Bay Detainees Sent To Bosnia
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) ―
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An attorney for three Guantanamo detainees says they have been sent to Bosnia and are expected to be released to their families. (File)
Paul J. Richards/Getty Images
Three Guantanamo prisoners were flown to Bosnia Tuesday and were being released to their families in the first detainee transfer ordered by a U.S. federal judge, an attorney for the men said.
A judge in Washington ordered the release of the Algerian-born men last month, saying the U.S. government's case was not strong enough to continue holding them. The order came in the first hearing on the Bush administration's evidence for keeping prisoners at the U.S. Navy base in eastern Cuba as "enemy combatants."
An unscheduled Tuesday night flight to the Sarajevo airport delivered a group of men to police who rushed them out of the building, put them in armored vehicles and took them to state police headquarters.
"This is a great victory. A great day for me and my family," said Nadja Dizdarevic, the wife of detainee Boudella al Hajj.
Al Hajj and fellow detainees Mustafa Ait Idr and Mohammed Nechle were taken into custody as a formality and were expected to be released to relatives, said one of their attorneys, Stephen Oleskey.
"It has a very happy ending," he said. "We are absolutely thrilled."
The three prisoners immigrated to Bosnia before they were detained in 2001 on suspicion of plotting to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo. They have been held at Guantanamo since January 2002.
In his order last month, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon said the government's evidence linking five Algerians to al-Qaida was not credible as it came from a single, unidentified source. He urged the Justice Department not to appeal because it could delay the men's release.
Rob Kirsch, an attorney for the men, called the release "a vindication for our legal system." He said U.S. and Bosnian officials had told the prisoners' lawyers about the upcoming transfer.
The Pentagon typically does not discuss detainee transfers until they are completed, citing security concerns.
Attorneys for the men said they suspected two of the five were not being released with the others because they do not have Bosnian citizenship.
One of the detainees who appeared to be staying was Lakhdar Boumediene, whose landmark Supreme Court case earlier this year gave the Guantanamo detainees the right to challenge their imprisonment.
The cases of more than 200 additional Guantanamo detainees are still pending, many in front of other judges in Washington's federal courts.
Boumediene has been on a hunger strike to protest his detention, according to Oleskey.
(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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