The Pentagon announced on Saturday that it had transferred Guantánamo Bay detainee Sufiyan Barhoumi to Algeria after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin alerted Congress last month about intentions to repatriate him.
The move followed a recommendation by the Periodic Review Board (PRB) to have Barhoumi relocated to Algeria, his native country, after it decided in August 2016 that his detention at the Guantánamo Bay facility was no longer necessary. He has been detained there since 2002, according to The Associated Press.
Among the 37 people detained currently in Guantánamo Bay, two were convicted in military commissions, seven are eligible for a PRB, 10 are involved in the military commissions process and 18 are eligible for transfer, according to the Pentagon.
In a larger effort to close down the Guantánamo Bay detention facility, the administration is trying to decrease the number of people being held there, the AP noted.
Barhoumi — who a PRB report said was not involved with the Taliban or al Qaeda but had still been engaged in extremist activity — was not repatriated earlier during the Obama administration.
Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in 2017 that the decision not to relocate him back to Algeria was “based on a variety of substantive concerns, shared by multiple agencies,” according to the AP, and a judge decided against intervening in the Pentagon’s decision.
A lawyer for Barhoumi claimed at the time that his family had bought a small restaurant for him to manage and a car in anticipation of his return, per the wire service.