Author: Aisha Noor
January 6, 2025
HRRC opposes the continued use of indefinite detention at Guantanamo Bay and the human rights abuses that go with detaining persons for over two decades without trial.
Ridah bin Saleh al-Yazidi, a detainee of Tunisian origin, has been freed by the United States' armed forces after detention in the infamous Guantanamo prison since the opening of the prison in the year 2002. Al-Yazidi, 59, was moved from the U.S. Army prison in Cuba to Tunisia on Monday, December 30th, following the transfer of four detainees in two weeks as President Biden sought to empty the detention center.
The Pentagon stressed that al-Yazidi's release was not a product of the Trump administration’s policy change; on the contrary, it was a result of a tough assessment by the U.S. Department of Defense, which ruled that the detainee was transfer-eligible after a thorough interagency discussion. The disbursement was declared by the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to Congress on January 31, 2024, to which the requirement needed for the transfer was also met with cooperation from the Tunisian government.
Al-Yazidi was never brought to court for any criminal offenses since his detention started in 1998 up to 2020, and even though he was approved for release in 2009, he was released much later due to the difficulties in repatriating detainees in Tunisia. This now brings the Biden administration’s effort to resettle the remaining 40 detainees at Guantanamo Bay since Biden took office in January 2020 closer to realization.
This release is not a unique circumstance but rather an extension of the Obama administrations’ continued attempt to shut down the Guantanamo Bay, other detainees have also been repatriated in recent weeks as well as part of the ongoing process to respond to long standing human rights violations of arbitrary detention without charge or fair trial.
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