A Kenyan who was detained at Guantánamo Bay for nearly 17 years over links to attacks staged by Al Qaeda, was among three prisoners released, the United States Pentagon has announced.
The prisoner, Mohammed Abdul Bajabu was repatriated to Kenya marking the first release from the wartime prison in over a year.
Bajabu was transferred to Kenya nearly three years after a Periodic Review Board determined the “continued law of war detention … was no longer necessary” in December 2021, a release from the Pentagon said on Tuesday December 17, marking the first detainee transfer in more than a year.
The Pentagon announced Bajabu’s release on Tuesday, saying Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had notified Congress of the decision to repatriate him to Kenya last month in November.
The Periodic Review Board, which assesses the status of detainees, determined in 2021 that Bajabu “was no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the national security of the United States”.
Reprieve US, which represented Bajabu, welcomed his release, saying that he was tortured by Kenyan authorities as well as US military personnel.
“The US robbed an innocent man of the best years of his life, separating him from his wife and young children when they most needed him,” a lawyer who helped represent Bajabu said in a statement.
Bajabu was among 780 prisoners brought to Guantánamo Bay under George Bush's tenure following a series of attacks in 2001.
He was accused of plotting attacks against Israeli tourists in Kenya.
An intelligence profile linked Bajabu to terrorist attacks that target Israelis on November 28, 2002, in Mombasa.
The car bomb attack led to 13 deaths, majority of whom were Kenyans. Bajabu was arrested by Kenyan police officers in February 2007 and expatriated to US custody a few weeks later.
The prisoner was, however, never charged with a crime and spent nearly 18 years in custody.
Bajabu had not been reported for any disciplinary infractions since his detention at Guantanamo Bay in 2007.
The US government expressed its appreciation for support in the process of reducing the Guantanamo detainee population in efforts to close it down.
At the time, Bajabu's lawyer Mark Maher connected the prisoner to a London-based human rights group Reprieve, which helps detainees after their release.
Maher sought Bajabu's transfer from the US Periodic Review Board who approved the request.
He said Bajabu had two sisters residing in Kenya as well as a wife and children living in Somalia who would relocate to Kenya to live with him.
The Guantanamo detention facility opened in 2002 to house detainees captured during the so-called “war on terror” after the 9/11 attacks.
Located at a US military base in Cuba, the prison operates under a legal system led by military commissions that do not guarantee the same rights as traditional US courts.
Detainees cleared for release sometimes spend years at Guantanamo as Washington looks for countries to take them after they are freed.
The prison once housed nearly 800 detainees, many of whom initially spent time at covert CIA locations known as “black sites”, where they were torture under the “enhanced interrogation” programme authorised by former President George W Bush’s administration.
Barack Obama, who succeeded Bush, had promised to close down the facility, but he failed largely due to legal technicalities and domestic political opposition.
Of the 29 detainees who remain at Guantanamo, 15 are eligible for transfer, according to the Pentagon.
In July, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and two other detainees reached a plea deal that would see them spend the rest of their lives in jail without the prospect of a trial where the government would seek the death penalty for them.
But Austin blocked the deal after an outcry from some conservative lawmakers and families of victims of the attack.
A military judge reinstated the plea agreement, but the Pentagon is appealing that decision.
On Tuesday, December 17, the Pentagon said that it aims to eventually close the detention centre in Guantanamo.
“The United States appreciates the support to ongoing US efforts toward a deliberate and thorough process focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility,” it said.
