A Yemeni Guantanamo detainee held without charge for 13 years must be repatriated because his weight dropped dangerously low on his long-term hunger strike, his lawyers told a federal judge in Washington.
Captured in 2002 by Pakistani army officials while crossing the border to Afghanistan, Tariq Ba Odah became one of the first captives rendered to the U.S. military base in Cuba, his leaked detainee profile says.
While the Pentagon identifies Ba Odah as a "possible member of al-Qaida," the military has never charged him with a crime.
Cleared for release eight years into his captivity, Ba Odah has protested his continued detention with a hunger strike that has stretched well into its eighth year.
He says that Pakistan sold him for a bounty to the United States.
On Thursday, attorney Omar Farah with the Center for Constitutional Rights told the U.S. District Court in D.C. that his client's "crisis-level physical and psychological condition" demands his release from Guantanamo. ...