Yemeni Guantanamo Detainee Ordered Released By US Judge

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the United States to release a prisoner from the Guantanamo detention center who said he fears for his life after informing against senior al-Qaida leaders.

U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle issued a one-page judgment ordering the release of Yasin Muhammed Basardh, a 33-year-old from Yemen. The judge didn't say in the ruling why Basardh should be let go, but she said it was explained during a closed hearing in her courtroom earlier in the day.

Basardh has begged U.S. officials not to send him back to Yemen or any other Muslim country.

"I am cooperative to the point where my cooperation with everyone has led to many people threatening my life," he said at a 2005 military hearing.

"Osama bin Laden's people know about me. They will not hesitate to kill me or anyone in my family. If they cannot kill me, they will kill at least one person from my family to get their revenge," Basardh said. At the time, he said he wanted to join the U.S. Army.

According to charges filed by the military in 2004, Basardh is a member of the Taliban who trained at a terror camp in Afghanistan that Osama bin Laden visited. The government says Basardh fought against the U.S. or its coalition partners, and fled to the Tora Bora region in November 2001, where he stayed in a cave with bin Laden.

He later left Tora Bora for Pakistan and was captured by the Pakistani military, according to the government.

Basardh told U.S. officials that before going to Afghanistan he spent time in Saudi Arabian jails for dealing drugs. He said other drug dealers who had repented persuaded him to train for jihad in Afghanistan.

Basardh filed a habeas corpus petition challenging his detention four years ago. Justice Department attorneys had argued that he was an enemy combatant and therefore being legally held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, but the specifics of his case were kept classified and sealed in court filings.

Basardh has requested asylum in the United States because his cooperation with U.S. officials has led to threats on his life. He has said he gave classified information against high-level members of al-Qaida.

"These threats against my life are continuously happening from the detainees here, from some high-ranking detainees," Basardh told a military hearing, according to a transcript. "I can't go back to my country."

But Huvelle's order specifically instructs the government to "take all necessary and appropriate diplomatic steps" for Basardh's release, suggesting that he may be heading to another country.

Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd would only say the department is reviewing the court's ruling.

Basardh's lawyer Stephen Sady, a public defender in Oregon, said he could not comment on the specifics of the case.

"We are very gratified that the writ of habeas corpus has served its historic and constitutional function, but it is inappropriate to comment further because the proceedings were sealed and classified," Sady said.

Although most of the more than 200 Guantanamo detainees are challenging their detention with habeas petitions, releases have been rare.

Last fall, a judge ordered the release of 17 Chinese Muslims, known as Uighurs, because they are no longer considered enemy combatants. A few weeks later, another judge ordered the release of five Algerians because he said evidence linking them to al-Qaida came from a single, unidentified source and was not credible.