WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Preparations are under way to transfer three Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detainees to Bosnia to comply with a court order based on a landmark Supreme Court ruling.
The transfers of the three Algerians to their adopted homeland would be the first releases from the military prison after a federal judge ordered the detainees freed based on the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Guantanamo Bay detainees had a right t contest their detentions in federal court, The New York Times reported.
The three men were expected to be flown from Guantanamo Bay to Sarajevo Tuesday, weather permitting, The Washington Post reported. Spokespersons for the Pentagon and the International Committee of the Red Cross declined to comment.
The State Department has been negotiating with the Bosnian government about the transfer of the five men, but authorities in Sarajevo agreed so far to accept three detainees who hold Bosnian citizenship, administration officials said. Discussions about the fate of Lakhdar Boumediene, the Algerian whose name is associated with the Supreme Court decision, continue because he was stripped of his citizenship during a court proceeding in Sarajevo, as do negotiations for the fifth prisoner.
