Afghan National Released After 15 Years in Detention at Guantanamo Without Charge
An Afghan prisoner who was held in US custody for nearly 15 years without charge was released from the Guantanamo Bay detention centre on Friday (June 24) and returned to his home country of Afghanistan.
Assadullah Haroon Gul, held at Guantanamo under the name Haroon al-Afghani, departed the prison and flew on a US Air Force plane to Qatar, which for years has served as an interlocutor between the Taliban and the US.
Qatari officials then handed him over to Taliban government representatives in Doha, a senior US official told The New York Times.
Gul was sent to Guantanamo in 2007, after the US accused him of being a member of Hezb-e-Islami (HIA), a militia that fought against the invasion of Afghanistan.
HIA entered into a peace agreement with the then-US-backed Afghan government in 2016.
“After 15 years imprisoned without charge or trial and after a Federal judge declared his detention illegal, Asad is finally free,” Mark Maher, Gul’s lawyer said in a statement.
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