Skip to main content

US transfers three detainees out of Guantanamo Bay prison

The release of the prisoners, two of them to Malaysia and one to Kenya, reduces the overall prisoner population to 27
In this pool photo, reviewed by the US military, Guantanamo detainees talk together inside the open-air yard at Camp 4 detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on 31 May 2009.
In this pool photo, reviewed by the US military, Guantanamo detainees talk together inside the open-air yard at Camp 4 detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on 31 May 2009 (Brennan Linsley/Pool/AFP)

The United States military has transferred three detainees from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility to Malaysia and Kenya, reducing the prison's detainee population to 27.

In two separate announcements on Tuesday, the Pentagon said that Mohammed Abdulmalik Bajabu would be released to Kenya, while Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep would be released to Malaysia.

All three detainees were returned to their countries of birth, which hasn't been the case for many other former Guantanamo detainees, who were transferred to host countries where they do not speak the language and continue to struggle to acclimate to their surroundings.

Out of the remaining 27 detainees at Guantanamo, 15 are eligible to be transferred out of the prison, and another three are eligible to be considered for transfer.

Seven detainees are currently in the military commissions process, while two have been convicted and sentenced.

New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch

Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters

The Pentagon said in a statement that Tuesday's transfers were part of an attempt at "responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility".

When US President Joe Biden entered office in 2021, there were 40 prisoners at Guantanamo. Biden pledged to close the prison early in his presidential term and has aimed to transfer the remaining eligible prisoners out of the detention centre before leaving office.

US President-elect Donald Trump has not indicated what he would do with the remaining prisoners, however, during his first term in office he signed an executive order to keep the prison open, reversing an Obama-era policy intended to close the prison.

'Returned to where he belongs'

Bajabu, who is returning to Kenya, was initially deemed fit for transfer back in December 2021, but it took another three years for his release from Guantanamo to be finalised.

He was arrested by Kenyan authorities, tortured and handed over to US authorities in 2007, after which he was sent to secret US prisons in Djibouti and Afghanistan before being sent to Guantanamo Bay.

'Abdulmalik has been dreaming of this day for many years'

- Frank Panopoulos, lawyer

US intelligence linked Bajabu to the 2002 bombing of an Israeli hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, and in 2016 Washington asked Israel if it could accept his transfer in the hopes the Israeli government would be able to prosecute him - Israel never accepted the offer.

He spent 18 years at Guantanamo without ever being charged with a crime, and according to Reprieve, a London-based rights group, the torture he faced while under US detention included sensory and sleep deprivation, exposure to extreme temperatures, beatings, sexual humiliation and confinement to shackles in painful positions. 

Now with his return to Kenya, where Bajabu has an extensive family network to support him, his legal team is hopeful that he will have a chance at rebuilding his life.

"Abdulmalik has been dreaming of this day for many years and we are overjoyed that he is finally back where he belongs, with his family in Kenya," Frank Panopoulos, of Abdulmalik Bajabu’s US legal team, said in a statement given to Middle East Eye.

"The US robbed an innocent man of the best years of his life, separating him from his wife and young children when they most needed him."

Dan Dolan, Reprieve’s deputy executive director, said that the transfer was long overdue, and therefore "we celebrate it with mixed emotions".

"The very least the US Government can do, having imprisoned Abdulmalik Bajabu without trial for 17 years, is ensure that this is truly an end to his ordeal and the beginning of a new life with his family," Dolan said in a statement given to MEE.

'Relentless nightmare of torment'

Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep were repatriated to Malaysia as a part of a plea deal, in which the two men agreed to testify against another detainee, Indonesian national Encep Nurjaman, over his alleged role in attacks on nightclubs in Bali and an attack on the JW Marriot hotel in Jakarta in 2003.

Secret Guantanamo prisoner transfer halted by war on Gaza: Report
Read More »

The three men were all arrested in 2003 and held at CIA black sites before their transfer to Guantanamo in 2006. They have been subject to torture, according to their defence lawyers.

After being transferred to Malaysia, Bin Amin and Bin Lep will serve an additional five years in a detention facility there before being released, according to the Pentagon.

"For the released Malaysian men, the three years in a CIA black site would have been a relentless nightmare of torture, isolation, and psychological torment," Mansoor Adayfi, a former Guantanamo detainee and now project coordinator at Cage International, said in a statement.

"Many were pushed to their limits, leaving survivors with lifelong physical and emotional scars, while others didn't survive the ordeal of these secret prisons."

Adayfi said Cage would "continue to follow their cases and fight for their right to rebuild their lives with dignity".

Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.