The transfer of Ridah bin Saleh al-Yazidi to a US military prison in Cuba is the fourth in two weeks by the outgoing Biden administration.
The Pentagon has released a Tunisian prisoner held at Guantanamo Bay since the notorious prison's first day of operation in 2002 without charge.
Ridah bin Saleh al-Yazidi was returned from United States military prison from Cuba to Tunisia on Monday, the US Department of Defense said in a statement.
The transfer is the fourth in two weeks by the outgoing Biden administration to reduce the number of military prisons, which held 40 inmates when Biden took office in 2020.
Al-Yazidi was “confirmed to be eligible for transfer by a strict screening process”.
“On January 31, 2024, the Secretary of Defense (Lloyd) Austin informed Congress that he wanted to support the restoration and, in cooperation with our partner in Tunisia, we completed the necessary steps to move properly,” the Pentagon. he said.
Al-Yazidi, 59, was not charged by the US and was granted extradition a decade ago, but no deal with the Tunisian government has been made so far to bring him home.
Pakistani troops captured al-Yazidi near the border with Afghanistan in December 2001, and suspected him of being an al-Qaeda fighter, The New York Times reported.
26 prisoners remain Guantanamo Bay and 14 are eligible for transfer, the statement said.
Three prisoners are eligible for review, seven are currently involved in the military process, and two prisoners have been convicted and sentenced, it added.
Al-Yazidi was sent to the prison on the day it was opened on January 11, 2002, to house the prisoners who were captured during that time. what the US called “War on Terror” after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Located on the US military base in Cuba, the prison operates under the command of military commissions which does not provide the same rights as US federal courts.
Prisoners who are released for release sometimes spend years at Guantanamo while Washington looks for countries to take them in after their release, other governments are reluctant to return them or join them.
Guantanamo Bay once housed about 800 prisoners, many of whom were previously housed in secret CIA facilities known as “black sites.” others were tortured under the “interrogation” program authorized by the former administration of President George W Bush.
The site became an enduring symbol of US brutality at the time. President Barack Obama, who succeeded Bush, promised to close the facility, but he he failed mainly because of his legal skills and criticizing the country's politics.