Ex-Guantánamo Detainee Is Freed From Moroccan Prison
WASHINGTON
— A Moroccan judge on Thursday ordered the release of a former detainee
at the Guantánamo Bay prison who had remained in custody for nearly
five months despite diplomatic assurances that he would probably be
freed shortly after his transfer to Morocco.
Though
the former detainee, Younis Shokuri, walked free for the first time in
15 years, he still faces the possibility of criminal charges related to
allegations that he was involved with a Moroccan Islamist group before
his capture in 2001; he has denied the allegations.
“This
is a positive step,” said his Moroccan lawyer, Khalil Idrissi. “We hope
that it will be followed with the charges being dropped.”
Mr.
Shokuri’s case has drawn scrutiny because the Moroccan authorities
apparently told the United States that they would most likely release
him without charges within 72 hours of any transfer, but instead kept
him in custody and opened the criminal investigation. His situation
highlighted the difficulties that the United States has faced in paring
the ranks of detainees at its prison in Cuba.
The New York Times published an article about the dispute on Sunday. Two days later, Mr. Idrissi said, he asked the judge to release his client on bail.
“Younis
at first couldn’t believe it even when he was told to pack his
clothes,” Mr. Idrissi said. “When I joined him at the prison, he was in a
state of disbelief.”
A Moroccan news website, Hespress, published photographs and a video
showing a smiling Mr. Shokuri leaving the prison. Mr. Idrissi said his
client had declined a request for an interview, adding that Mr. Shokuri
was resting while he waited for relatives, who live several hours away,
to arrive.
Ian
Moss, the chief of staff in the State Department office that negotiates
transfers from Guantánamo, declined to comment. But he has previously
said that the United States has continued to talk with Morocco.
Cori
Crider, a lawyer with the international human rights group Reprieve,
which represented Mr. Shokuri in a habeas corpus lawsuit in the United
States, said the organization was delighted.
“Younis
should have been home with his family months ago, but we rejoice that
he will be with loved ones tonight, and hope he will see his wife soon,
after 14 years,” she said.
Mr.
Shokuri left Morocco for Pakistan in 1990 and later moved to
Afghanistan. After the United States began bombing Afghanistan following
the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he was captured near the
Pakistan border and transferred to Guantánamo.
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