The Pentagon Thursday sent home from Guantánamo an Algerian captive who feared repatriation, even as the White House grapples with new congressional restrictions on releases from the prison camps in southeast Cuba.
The transfer of Saed Farhi, 49, left the prison camps population at 173. On Tuesday, the prison population at Guantánamo enters its 10th year.
U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ordered Farhi's release on Nov. 19, 2009, writing in an 80-page ruling that Justice Department lawyers didn't prove the captive had joined either al Qaeda or the Taliban while in South Asia.
The Algerian, Kessler said, ``may well have started down the path toward becoming a member or substantial supporter of al Qaeda and/or the Taliban, but on this record he had not yet achieved that status.''
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