WASHINGTON, May 13 (UPI) -- A federal judge ordered a Yemeni detainee released from the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison, ruling the government used iffy witnesses to make its case.
In her 45-page opinion issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler said the government didn't prove Alla Ali Bin Ali Ahmed, 25, supported the Taliban or al-Qaida, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
She ordered government officials to engage in diplomatic negotiations to release Ahmed, who has been at the facility since 2002, although the United States has hesitated to return Yemenis to their home country because of its instability.
Kessler said evidence presented by the government that Ahmed was a terrorist was weak, inconsistent or too speculative to support his confinement, the Post said. Most of the problems stemmed from the government's witnesses, she said.
The credibility of one was questionable while another witness's statement was fraught with "equivocation and speculation," Kessler wrote. A third witness alleged he was tortured, but apparently suffered from psychosis while a fourth offered a vague statement that could have been about another detainee, she said.
"When taken all together as facts which comprise a mosaic theory, the evidence does not satisfy the government's burden of proof," Kessler said.
Ahmed attorney Kit Pierson said the ruling vindicated their legal actions.
"This is someone who never should have been in Guantanamo," Pierson told the Post.
A Justice Department spokesman said government lawyers would review the ruling and consider next steps.
