Guantánamo inmate Abdul Latif Nasir has been taken to his home country of Morocco. He is the first to leave the prison camp under Biden’s presidency.
The US government has released a prisoner from Guantánamo Detention Center for the first time since President Joe Biden took office. Abdul Latif Nasir was brought to Morocco because he no longer threatened US national security, the US Department of Defense said. Morocco has given security guarantees and promised “humane treatment” for Nasir, it said.
Nasir was never charged in the United States. A commission set up under former President Barack Obama recommended his dismissal in 2016. The necessary steps could no longer be taken before the change of government – and the successor in office, Donald Trump, strictly refused to be released from the camp.
The Pentagon did not leak any information on whether Nasir would remain detained or released in Morocco. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs thanked Morocco for its willingness to accept Nasir. It appealed to other countries to also take their citizens who had fought for terrorist organizations abroad.
Thirty-nine inmates now remain in the Guantánamo prison camp. Most of these people have been held there for two decades without charge or trial. The centre was set up after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, under Republican President George W. Bush in Cuba to detain suspected Islamist terrorists. In Guantánamo, there have been repeated reports of human rights violations and torture.
