WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. officials at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have released a well-known Algerian detainee and flown him to France, where he will be allowed to join family members.
A guard talks with a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, earlier this year.
A guard talks with a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, earlier this year.
French officials said they agreed to accept Lakhdar Boumediene, who is not a French citizen, because he has relatives in the country.
Boumediene arrived in France from Guantanamo on Friday, according to a statement from the French foreign ministry.
Boumediene had been in custody since he and five others were arrested in Bosnia in 2001. Last year, a federal judge ordered five of the six men freed for lack of evidence supporting accusations that they planned to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia.
The 5-4 Supreme Court ruling bearing his name declared that detainees in the U.S. Navy facility at Guantanamo Bay have a right to appear in court and be charged. If that doesn't happen, it said, they must be released.
Three of Boumediene's co-defendants were released earlier to Bosnia, where they are naturalized citizens.
The fifth defendant ordered freed, Sabir Lahmar, is believed to still be in custody at Guantanamo Bay.
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