US transfers 2 Guantanamo detainees to Sudan
WASHINGTON: The United States announced Wednesday it had transferred two Sudanese detainees from Guantanamo to their home country, its second release this week as President Barack Obama works to close the prison.
Noor Uthman Muhammed, 51, and Ibrahim Othman Ibrahim Idris, 52, were the last Sudanese prisoners at the US naval base in southern Cuba, a US defense official told.
They were both considered by the US military to be members of Al-Qaeda and were sent to Guantanamo in 2002.Idris, seen by the Pentagon as a "veteran" member of the terror network who swore loyalty to its late leader Osama bin Laden in the 1990s, was among the first detainees to arrive at Guantanamo Bay on January 11, 2002. Muhammed arrived in May of that year.
In exchange for a guilty plea to terror offenses in February 2011, part of Muhammed´s 14-year sentence was suspended and he completed his term on December 3.Idris, who had been cleared for transfer since 2009 by an interagency task force, was released following an October court order from the US District Court in Washington.
"As directed by the president´s January 22, 2009, executive order, the task force conducted a comprehensive review of Idris´s case, which examined a number of factors, including security issues, in making that designation," Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Todd Breasseale said.
It said the Obama administration informed Congress of its intent to transfer both men, as required by law.
The transfers came as Obama accelerates repatriations to meet his campaign promise of closing the prison opened by his predecessor George W. Bush in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States to house suspects captured around the world.
