Two Guantanamo men to be free in Serbia - and to "integrate"

Two Guantanamo men to be free in Serbia - and to "integrate"

Tajik Muhammadi Davlatov, who goes by the name Omar Abdulayev, was eligible for release in 2008 but the process became protracted because "he could not be safely repatriated."

For that reason, he remained in Guantanamo for the next eight years, and will now be released in Serbia.

Scott said on Tuesday that it was important that the prisoners be integrated into Serbian society and pointed out that their transfer was planned for a long time - a part of a program to shut down the prison.

According to Scott, the U.S. has the help of many countries in implementing the plan, while Serbia is among 15 European countries that received prisoners from Guantanamo.

"The most important thing is that they are here, and that they now find a way to start a new life in Serbia," said Scott, adding that the Serbian government has already made several steps in this direction.

The two former Guantanamo inmates who have been sent to Serbia were captured in late 2001 during the war in Afghanistan and handed over to the U.S. military, that proceeded to keep them in detention without trial for more than 14 years, reported the New York Times.

A review board described the Yemeni - whom the paper named as "Abdul Rahman Ahmed" - as once being “probably a low-level fighter who was aligned with Al Qaeda" who "changed his mind-set in prison, become fluent in English, completed courses required for a high school equivalency degree and largely complied with prison rules since 2012."

“The board found the detainee credible in his desire to pursue non-extremist goals and higher education as well as his embrace of Western culture,” the New York Times quoted a public report.

One of the conditions for the release of prisoners from Guantanamo is that they pose no threat to U.S. national security in the future.

A debate on this topic was recently launched in the U.S. Congress, after a former inmate was transferred to Uruguay, and then disappeared without a trace.

U.S. media are reporting that the transfers of these so-called "forever prisoner" are often slow due to problems in their home countries and the need to find a third country, which can provide "supervision and rehabilitation."