Earlier this week, the U.S. moved three detainees out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, including a Kenya man, Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu, who had been held for 17 years without charge at the U.S. military prison, the Associated Press reports. His release leaves 15 other never-charged men awaiting release. The U.S. says it is searching for suitable countries willing to take them. Many are from Yemen, a country split by war and dominated by an Iranian-allied militant group. Amnesty International urged President Joe Biden to end the detention of those never-charged men before he leaves office.
The U.S. also transferred two Malaysian detainees, Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep, to custody in their home country after they pleaded guilty to charges related to deadly 2002 bombings in Bali that killed 202 people and agreed to testify against Encep Nurjaman, the mastermind of the bombings. The two Malaysian men’s transfers leave 27 detainees in custody at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay. President George W. Bush set up a military tribunal and prison after the Sept. 11, 2001 al-Qaida attacks on the U.S. At peak, Guantanamo detained hundreds of men, most Muslim, in the U.S. military’s “war on terror” after the Sept. 11 attacks.