DUSHANBE, July 12, 2016, Asia-Plus — The U.S. Department of Defense announced on Monday that two inmates from the Guantanamo prison have been transferred to Serbia.
The prisoners are Tajik national Muhammadi Davlatov and Mansour Ahmad Saad al-Dayfi from Yemen.
“It is the first time the United States has transferred Guantanamo Bay prisoners to Serbia,” State Department”s special envoy for Guantanamo”s closure Lee Wolosky said, according
to Reuters
.
“The United States appreciates the generous assistance of Serbia as the United States continues its efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. This significant humanitarian gesture is consistent with Serbia’s leadership on the global stage,” the agency quoted a statement issued by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Two inmates from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay were transferred to Serbia on Monday as the Obama administration pressed ahead with its long-held goal of shutting the widely condemned facility at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.
The transfer of Muhammadi Davlatov and Mansour Ahmad Saad al-Dayfi to Serbia reportedly reduced the number of detainees at Guantanamo to 76, with 27 of those approved for transfer once an appropriate country can be found, U.S. officials said.
Reuters
reports that Davlatov, 37, also known as Umar Hamzayevich Abdullayev, was approved for transfer nearly six years ago by six U.S. government departments and agencies.
According to a 2008 secret assessment by a military task force made public by
WikiLeaks
, Davlatov was a member of the Islamic Movement of Tajikistan who was thought to have received training at an al Qaeda camp.
The Obama administration had notified Congress of its intent to transfer the two men, as required by law, a State Department official said on condition of anonymity.
President Barack Obama had hoped to close the prison during his first year in office in 2009 but has faced opposition from many Republican lawmakers as well as some fellow Democrats, according to
Reuters
.
Most of the inmates remaining at the prison have been held without charge or trial since being detained following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
