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Dec. 17 (UPI) -- The Pentagon announced Tuesday that Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu has been released from Guantanamo Bay, reducing the number of detainees at the controversial Cuban prison to 29. Bajabu, 51, was released to the government of Kenya, the Pentagon said in a statement, ending the man's nearly two-decade detention at the U.S. facility.
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Though never charged with a crime, Bajabu was accused of being a facilitator for an al-Qaida group in East Africa.
A Guantanamo detainee profile for Bajabu states he was inspired by a radical imam to leave his native Kenya to receive extremist training in Somalia in 1996. The report states he was "closely involved in the preparation and execution" of attacks in Mombasa, Kenya, in November 2002.
The attack targeted an Israeli-owned hotel with a bomb, killing 13 people and injuring some 80 others. A surface-to-air rocket was also fired at an Israeli charter airplane taking off from Mombasa airport, but failed.
Bajabu was arrested for the attack by Kenyan authorities in February 2007 and was transferred to U.S. custody. He had been a detainee at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility since March of 2007.
Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, then-President George W. Bush issued a military order directing specific non-citizen detainees accused of terrorism-related crimes to be held at Guantanamo Bay, according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service.
Construction on the facility that could hold about 2,000 prisoners began in early 2002 with its first 300 detainees arriving from facilities in Kandahar, Afghanistan, almost immediately after, it said.
The facility has held about 780 detainees since 2002 and has attracted criticism from human rights advocates as most prisoners there were never charged, among other issues.
Bajabu's release comes nearly three years after the Periodic Review Board determined that his detention "was no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the national security of the United States," the Pentagon said.
"The United States appreciates the support to ongoing U.S. efforts toward a deliberate and thorough process focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility," the Department of State said Tuesday.
While Amnesty International said it welcomed Bajabu's release, the human rights organization hoped to see more transfers in the coming days.
"Fifteen men remain who have never been charged with any crimes and have long been cleared by U.S. security agencies to leave Guantánamo, some for more than a decade. As a matter of justice, they should be transferred as soon as possible," Daphne Eviatar, director of the Security with Human Rights program at Amnesty International USA, said in a statement.
"President Biden must transfer these men before he leaves office, or he will continue to bear responsibility for the abhorrent practice of indefinite detention without charge or trial by the U.S. government."
According to government statistics, of the 29 detainees remaining at Guantanamo Bay, 15 are eligible for transfer, three are eligible for a Periodic Review Board, seven are involved in the military commissions process and four have been convicted and sentenced.
