Thursday, November 26, 2009
Judge Gladys Kessler (photo: Beverly Rezneck)
Farhi Saeed bin Mohammed, 48, finds himself in the same limbo as a dozen other Guantánamo detainees who have been ordered released by federal courts, only to remain behinds bars in Cuba. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler ruled last Friday that the U.S. government should release bin Mohammed, an Algerian captured in Pakistan in 2002 and sent to Guantánamo, where he has since remained. After serving for a couple of years in the Algerian army, bin Mohammed moved about Europe in the 1990s working as an itinerant laborer before going to Afghanistan before September 11, 2001. He fled to Pakistan after the U.S. invasion. Kessler’s ruling has not yet been declassified
The Justice Department has until December 17 to notify Kessler about its plans for repatriating bin Mohammed to another country. The deadline, however, provides no guarantee that he will be released anytime soon. Thirty-one detainees have won their cases in court, but 12 still remain at Guantánamo, including bin Mohammed.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Judge Orders Release of Algerian From Guantánamo (But He’s Not Going Anywhere) (by Andy Worthington)
Saiid Farhi (New York Times)
Comments