Pat Dollard | Young Americans

MIAMI - The United States sent three Algerian-born prisoners home to Bosnia on Tuesday in the first release under court order from the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, one of their lawyers said.

The three men — Mustafa Ait Idir, Mohamed Nechla and Hadj Boudella — landed in Sarajevo, where they were taken into protective custody, attorney Stephen Oleskey said.

“We’re sure they will all soon be released to their families because there’s no basis to hold them,” Oleskey said.

A U.S. judge in Washington ruled last month that there was not enough evidence to detain five Algerian-born Bosnian residents who had been held at Guantanamo nearly seven years, and ordered them released “forthwith”.

The three sent home on Tuesday had Bosnian citizenship, Oleskey said. It was unclear when the other two might be released.

(Reuters)