Guantanamo Bay — Detainee Transfer Announced

The Depart­ment of Defense announced today the trans­fer of two detainees from the deten­tion facil­i­ty at Guan­tanamo Bay to the Gov­ern­ments of Alge­ria and Cape Verde.

As direct­ed by the President’s Jan­u­ary 22, 2009 exec­u­tive order, the inter­a­gency Guan­tanamo Review Task Force con­duct­ed a com­pre­hen­sive review of these cas­es. As a result of that review, which exam­ined a num­ber of fac­tors, includ­ing secu­ri­ty issues, the detainees were approved for trans­fer by unan­i­mous con­sent among all the agen­cies involved in the task force. In accor­dance with Con­gres­sion­al­ly man­dat­ed report­ing require­ments, the admin­is­tra­tion informed Con­gress of its intent to trans­fer these indi­vid­u­als at least 15 days before their transfer. 

Abdul Aziz Naji was repa­tri­at­ed to his native Alge­ria, and Abd-al-Nisr Mohammed Khan­tu­mani was reset­tled in Cape Verde. The Unit­ed States is grate­ful to the gov­ern­ments of Alge­ria and Cape Verde for their will­ing­ness to sup­port U.S. efforts to close the Guan­tanamo Bay deten­tion facil­i­ty. The Unit­ed States coor­di­nat­ed with the gov­ern­ments of Alge­ria and Cape Verde to ensure the trans­fers took place under appro­pri­ate secu­ri­ty measures. 

Since 2002, more than 600 detainees have depart­ed Guan­tanamo Bay for oth­er des­ti­na­tions, includ­ing Alba­nia, Alge­ria, Afghanistan, Aus­tralia, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Bel­gium, Bermu­da, Chad, Den­mark, Egypt, Geor­gia, France, Hun­gary, Iran, Iraq, Ire­land, Italy, Jor­dan, Kuwait, Libya, Mal­dives, Mau­ri­ta­nia, Moroc­co, Pak­istan, Palau, Por­tu­gal, Rus­sia, Sau­di Ara­bia, Slo­va­kia, Soma­lia, Spain, Swe­den, Switzer­land, Sudan, Tajik­istan, Turkey, Ugan­da, Unit­ed King­dom and Yemen. 

Today, 178 detainees remain at Guan­tanamo Bay. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs)