A fourth prisoner was repatriated from Guantanamo Bay in December, bringing the total number of detainees to 26 from what CBS News reports was a peak of 800 prisoners. The New York Times reports that Ridah Bin Saleh al Yazidi had been held in the prison since its very first day of operation, Jan. 11, 2002. The now-59-year-old Tunisian was never charged and was cleared for transfer more than a decade ago, but remained stuck there as a deal with Tunisia didn't firm up and Yazidi reportedly refused to meet with other countries that might take him, per the Times. The Pentagon said Yazidi left the base 11 months after Congress was informed a deal had finally been reached with Tunisia.
No details about any arrangements or relatives there have been disclosed. The Times notes "he has apparently not seen a lawyer in nearly 20 years." There is also little known about Yazidi outside of some details from leaked US intelligence documents, including that he served time in Italy for drug-related offenses in the '80s and '90s and ended up in Afghanistan in 1999, where he attended a training camp for jihadists.
He was captured along with roughly 30 other men—some thought to be Osama bin Laden's bodyguards—near the Afghan border in December 2001. A 2007 prison assessment painted him as hostile and dangerous, noting he once threw a cup of tea at a US soldier. CNN reports he was accused of being an al-Qaeda member in a US military assessment from that year. Fourteen of the remaining detainees at Guantanamo are currently eligible for transfer. (More Guantanamo Bay stories.)
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