Sana'a, Yemen - Yemeni authorities have released the former
driver of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden nearly two weeks after he
was released from the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a
family source said on Saturday.
The source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that Salim Hamdan, 40,
was released from the intelligence prison in the capital Sana'a late
on Thursday.
Security officials confirmed Hamdan's release, but they refused to
give further details.
The US military transferred Hamdan to Yemen on November 26 to
serve out the rest of his five-year sentence.
Hamdan was convicted by a US military commission in August of
supporting terrorism and sentenced to five and a half years in
prison. He was due for release in January with time served.
He was arrested by US forces in Afghanistan in 2001, and
transferred to the Guantanamo prison in 2002.
In November, government officials said Hamdan would be sent
through a rehabilitation programme which included dialogue with
religious scholars.
About 100 of some 250 detainees at the controversial prison camp
in Guantanamo Bay are Yemenis.
They have become the single largest nationality locked up in
Guantanamo as the prison's population steadily declined from a peak
of 600 in 2003.
Only 12 Yemenis have been released from the facility since it was
set up in 2002.
Of these, five were later released by Yemeni authorities while the
rest were put on trial in Yemen for falsifying identification
documents.
None was charged with terrorism-related activities.
A team of US lawyers representing Yemeni nationals detained at
Guantanamo appealed to the Yemeni government last year to take
visible steps to secure the release of its citizens.
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