U.S. citizen held 13 months for suspected ties to ISIS is freed

WASHINGTON — An American citizen held by the U.S. military without charges for more than a year as a suspected member of the Islamic State in Syria has been freed from custody, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented him.

The man, who has not been named in court filings, was released in a third country Sunday, the ACLU said. The man had been imprisoned since being turned over to American forces in September 2017 after he was captured at a rebel Syrian Democratic Forces checkpoint and he declared his U.S. citizenship.

U.S. officials have said they lacked admissible evidence to criminally charge the man, who grew up in Saudi Arabia and is a dual citizen, but detained him as an “enemy combatant.” His extraordinary case set off a yearlong legal battle over whether U.S. citizens captured on a battlefield as suspected Islamic State fighters have the right to challenge their detentions.

His release means the government will avoid a court ruling on that issue, and specifically over whether the wartime authority granted by Congress after 9/11 that targeted al-Qaeda and the Taliban extends to the struggle against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

FBI interrogators said that he claimed to be a freelance journalist who agreed to work for ISIS to gain his release after it captured him.

The FBI said a U.S. military intelligence report on an ISIS recruiting file indicated the man registered with the group in July 2014 as a “fighter,” declining a choice of “suicide bomber.”