U.S. releases Algerian man after 20 years at Guantánamo

April 2 (UPI) -- The United States sent a longtime prisoner of Guantánamo Bay back to his home country of Algeria, the Defense Department announced Saturday.

Sufiyan Barhoumi was captured in Pakistan in 2002 and transferred to Guantánamo shortly afterward, The New York Times reported. He was determined eligible for repatriation in 2016 but his case was one of several at the military prison delayed under former President Donald Trump's administration.

A government panel tasked with determining which Guantánamo prisoners are eligible for release ruled that "law of war detention of Mr. Barhoumi was no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the national security of the United States," the Defense Department said in a press release.

In Algeria, Barhoumi will be "subject to security and humane treatment assurances" but the Defense Department did not specify which security measures Algeria will take as part of the repatriation agreement. Similar past arrangements with the country included travel restrictions.

Barhoumi was originally detained because military prosecutors believed he was a jihadist bomb-maker working out of a safe house in the Punjab region of Pakistan. However, a court later ruled that the Pentagon had no jurisdiction over charges of providing material support to terrorism, which is a civilian offense.

The Periodic Review Board, a six-person Pentagon panel that considers the cases of military prisoners, cleared Barhoumi for release back to his home country in 2016. But the details of his release hadn't yet been ironed out when Trump took office and put a freeze on Guantánamo transfers, reversing his predecessor's policy of taking steps to close the prison.

Barhoumi's lawyer, Shayana Kadidal of the Center for Constitutional Rights, described his client as a peacekeeper between the prisoners and guards at Guantánamo.

"Our government owes Sufyian and his mother years of their lives back," Kadidal said in a statement. "I'm overjoyed that he will be home with his family, but I will dearly miss his constant good humor and empathy for the suffering of others in the utterly depressing environment of Guantánamo."

Kadidal is the third Guantánamo prisoner released under President Joe Biden.

The Cuba-based military prison has held approximately 780 people since 2002, the vast majority of which have since been transferred. Just 37 detainees remain, of which 18 are eligible for release to another country.

There are seven prisoners whose cases are eligible for case review while 10 are involved in a military commissions process and two have been convicted.