This is the fourth time in two weeks that the outgoing Biden administration has transferred Rida bin Saleh Yazidi from a U.S. military prison in Cuba.

The Pentagon has released a Tunisian detainee held at Guantanamo Bay since the first day the notorious prison camp opened in 2002, but he was never charged.

Ridah bin Saleh al-Yazidi was removed from U.S. military prison The U.S. Department of Defense said in a statement that it flew from Cuba to Tunisia on Monday.

The transfer is the fourth in two weeks by the outgoing Biden administration to reduce the population of the military prison, which housed 40 inmates when Biden took office in 2020.

Yazidis were “determined to be eligible for transfer through a rigorous interagency review process.”

“On January 31, 2024, Secretary of Defense (Lloyd) Austin notified Congress of his intention to support this repatriation and, in consultation with our partners in Tunisia, we completed the requirements for a responsible transfer,” the Pentagon explain.

Al-Yazdi, 59, has never been charged with a crime by the United States and was approved for transfer more than a decade ago, but only now has a deal been struck with the Tunisian government to bring him home.

According to the New York Times, Pakistani soldiers captured Yazidi near the Afghan border in December 2001 and he was a suspected al-Qaeda fighter.

Twenty-six detainees remain in prison Guantanamo Bay Of those, 14 are eligible for transfer, the statement said.

The statement added that three prisoners are eligible for periodic review of their status, seven are currently participating in military commission proceedings and two detainees have been convicted and sentenced.

Al-Yazidi was sent to the prison on January 11, 2002, the day it opened to house detainees arrested while there. America’s so-called “war on terror” After the attacks of September 11, 2001.

The prison is located on a U.S. military base in Cuba and operates under the following legal system: military commission The same rights as traditional U.S. courts are not guaranteed.

Prisoners who are allowed to be released sometimes stay in Guantanamo for years as Washington looks for countries to take them in upon release, but some governments are unwilling to take them back or house them.

Guantánamo Bay once housed nearly 800 prisoners, many of whom initially spent time in secret CIA locations known as “black sites.” some people were tortured under an “enhanced interrogation” program authorized by the administration of former President George W. Bush.

The facility became an enduring symbol of the abuses in America during that era. President Barack Obama, who succeeded Bush, promised to close the facility, but he The failure was mainly due to legal technical issues and domestic political opposition.