Algeria, U.S. on extradition of Algerian prisoner from Guantanamo

Algeria said on Monday it is negotiating with the United States to extradite an Algerian prisoner in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

Talks are held between the Algerian foreign ministry and the U.S. administration, said Tayeb Louh, the Algerian justice minister, adding that the issue of the Algerian prisoner is the subject of "continuous monitoring" between both sides, according to the National Radio.

Altogether 19 Algerian nationals have already been repatriated from Guantanamo to Algeria, where legal authorities subjected them to trials, some of them acquitted, while some others sentenced to prison.

Guantanamo is a military detention facility, part of a U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in southeastern Cuba. It hosts prisoners captured by the U.S. forces in various operations conducted abroad, including Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, against potential militants and terrorists.

On Nov. 16, 2008, former U.S. President Barack Obama promised to close the camp, regarding the increasing number of suicide acts taking place there, and noted that the Supreme Court of the United States declared illegal the judicial proceedings of this high security detention camp.

Yet, the newly elected president, Donald Trump, excluded the possibility to close Guantanamo prison, adding that no more prisoners should be released from there. Endit