Senegal takes in Guantanamo detainees

Miami — Senegal said Monday it has taken in for resettlement two cleared Libyan detainees from Guantanamo, a transfer that reduced the prison camp’s census to 89.

Senegal’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the two men were granted “asylum in accordance with the relevant conventions of international humanitarian law, also in the tradition of Senegalese hospitality and Islamic solidarity with two African brothers who have expressed interest in resettlement in Senegal after their release.”

It noted that one of the men granted asylum was “handicapped.”

Of the remaining captives, 35 are approved for release. More releases are expected later this month, including a long-term, long-cleared hunger striker.

The Pentagon identified those released as Salim Gherebi, 55, and Omar Khalif, 44. They got to the U.S. military-run detention center in Cuba in May and August 2002, respectively. Pakistani forces captured them separately, then turned them over to U.S. troops, who transferred them to Afghanistan before Guantanamo. Neither man was ever charged with a crime.

Khalif has no right leg below the knee from a 1998 land mine accident in Afghanistan and a left leg held together by metal pins from a 1995 construction site accident in Sudan, according to his attorney. Khalif is blind in his left eye.