18 Released From Guantanamo

Seventeen Afghans came home Tuesday from the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and one accused the U.S. military of abusing him, despite warnings from a senior Afghan official to keep quiet about any complaints.

A Turk suspected of ties to Al Qaeda also was freed from Guantanamo and sent back to Turkey.

The releases lowered the number of detainees classified as “enemy combatants” at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba to about 520 from about 40 countries, said a Pentagon spokesman, Air Force Maj. Michael Shavers.

The detention center has drawn strong international criticism, and U.S. court rulings have chipped away at Bush administration rules that denied the prisoners many legal safeguards. Some freed detainees have charged that they were mistreated or tortured, and multiple investigations are looking into abuses at detention camps in Guantanamo and Afghanistan.

The detainees include suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda members captured during the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the repressive Taliban government in late 2001.

Shavers said the 17 Afghans and the Turk were cleared of suspicions of terrorist links during a tribunal review process that ended recently. Five others cleared in late March were sent home, and 15 more await transfers.

The Afghan men, nearly all bearded and most wearing denim jackets bearing numbers, were handed over to Afghan authorities during a ceremony at the country’s Supreme Court hours after they arrived from Cuba.

Referring to journalists gathered in the room for a news conference, Chief Justice Fazl Hadi Shinwari said, “Don’t tell these people the stories of your time in prison, because the government is trying to secure the release of others, and it may harm the release of your friends.”

Abdul Rahman said he had been abused during 3 1/2 years in detention, although he would not elaborate.

“Everybody in the world knows what kind of jail it is. I can’t talk about it now,” Rahman said.

Rahman, who appeared to be in his 40s, said he was from Zabol province, a hotbed of militant activity northeast of the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.

The men were allowed only brief comments before they were whisked away by Afghan security agents.

An intelligence official said the men would be held at an undisclosed location Tuesday night, but could be sent to their homes as early as today.

The freed Turkish man was turned over to authorities in the southern Turkish city of Adana, the Anatolia news agency said Tuesday.

Salih Uyar, 24, was questioned for several hours by prosecutors, who did not file criminal charges, then he was handed over to military authorities, who could charge him with draft evasion. Uyar spent more than three years at Guantanamo, suspected of ties to Al Qaeda.

The U.S. military has released 232 detainees from Guantanamo, 65 of them on the condition that they continue to be held by their home governments.