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An Afghan prisoner held in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay for around 15 several years has been introduced, the Department of Protection reported on Friday.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s deputy culture and facts minister, to start with introduced the transfer of Asadullah Haroon al Afghani, also recognised as “Gul,” back again to his residence place of Afghanistan. The minister reported Haroon was just one of the previous two Afghan prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay.

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He left Guantanamo Bay on Thursday and traveled to Qatar on a U.S. Air Force plane, wherever he was then handed around to Taliban federal government officials in Doha, in accordance to the New York Moments.

Haroon was captured in 2007. The United States accused him of getting the commander of the Hezb-e-Islami militia, which fought alongside the Taliban and al Qaeda towards the U.S. invasion, but his detainment grew to become questionable in 2016, when the armed service built a peace deal with the then-federal government of Afghanistan.

Choose Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court docket in Washington, D.C., dominated that his detention was unlawful, but it was after the Taliban had retaken handle of Afghanistan, as a result presenting the Biden administration with a tough path to navigate as it associated to his return.

United Kingdom-dependent rights team Reprieve mentioned in a statement that Haroon’s spouse and children “feared him lifeless for lots of years” and claimed, “For the initially 9 a long time of his captivity, he did not have entry to a law firm, even with multiple makes an attempt to obtain lawful illustration.”

“Asadullah has endured severe actual physical and psychological torture throughout his detention, including getting beaten, hung by his wrists, deprived of food stuff and drinking water, and prevented from praying,” the team alleged. “He has been subjected to rest deprivation, intense chilly temperatures and solitary confinement.”

President George W. Bush opened the detention heart at Guantanamo Bay in 2002 next the assaults on Sept. 11. At its peak, the facility housed virtually 800 detainees, in accordance to NBC News. President Barack Obama promised to shut down the facility all through his marketing campaign, though his attempts ended up ultimately unsuccessful. Nonetheless, throughout his administration, the quantity of detainees shrunk from 245 to 41.

President Joe Biden has taken some steps to near the detention facility, however there are about three dozen remaining, about fifty percent of whom are suitable for transfer.