US sends five Guantanamo inmates to Georgia, Slovakia

The United States has transferred five Guantanamo Bay prisoners to Europe as part of efforts to empty and close the controversial U.S. military detention center in Cuba, officials said Nov. 20.

Three Yemeni prisoners were sent to Georgia, while a fourth Yemeni and a Tunisian were transferred to Slovakia, Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Myles Caggins said.

The men, aged 31 to 48, arrived by plane Nov. 20 evening, leaving behind 143 terror suspects at Guantanamo. They had been held at the prison facility for more than a decade without charge or trial.

The five men had been cleared for release by President Barack Obama's administration.

Most of the prisoners still languishing at the U.S. naval base are from Yemen. Of the 84 detainees from that country, 54 have been cleared for release.

Obama lifted a moratorium in May on transfers of Yemeni prisoners, but none had been released until now due to political instability in Yemen and the risk of returning to the fight.

Hasham Bin Ali Bin Amor Sliti, from Turkey, and Husayn Salim Muhammad al-Mutari Yafai were sent to Slovakia.

Legal support group Reprieve said Sliti had been sold for bounty to Pakistani soldiers in December 2001, then handed to US forces in January 2002 and "tortured" for four months in the Afghan city of Kandahar. Sliti, 48, was transferred to Guantanamo in May 2002.

"This is a welcome day, if long overdue, and (Sliti) is looking forward to rebuilding his life and starting a family," Reprieve attorney Cori Crider said in a statement.        

"Let us hope that the dozens of other cleared men left in Gitmo will soon follow," the lawyer added, referring to the prison.        

The Pentagon said it was grateful to...