KABUL: (Middle East Press) Five lower-level Yemeni prisoners were transferred from the US Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba to the United Arab Emirates, The Department of Defense announced on Sunday.
The United States had held each detainees for nearly 14 years as wartime prisoners, and none had been charged with a crime.
Each of the five Yemeni prisoners was captured near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in late 2001, the New York Times reported, referring to leaked military dossiers.
The transfers reduced the detainee population at the prison to 107. As many as 17 other proposed transfers of lower-level detainees are in the bureaucratic pipeline, the New York Times states, citing an official familiar with internal deliberations.
In a similar move in September, another prisoner was sent to his native Saudi Arabia.
About half of the current Guantanamo detainees have been cleared for release. However, because the prisoners’ home countries are often a greater threat to the detainee, the US says it must find third party countries to take them in.
