Chapter 5 Towards the Closure of Guantanamo: International Legal Obligations | 119 with regard to the Transfer or Release of Detainees 2. The situation of detainees from Yemen 290. Closing Guantanamo is, to a great extent, related to the situation of Yemeni detainees and security conditions in their home country. As of March 2015, Yemeni nationals at Guantanamo represented more than 60% of the total prison population (75 out of 122) and 85% of those designated for transfer (48 out of 56). 349 Therefore, it will not be possible to close Guantanamo without effectively addressing this situation. 291. The Guantanamo Review Task Force concluded that the Yemeni detainees posed a unique challenge; they were by far the largest group in the Guantanamo population, and the security situation in Yemen had deteriorated. 350 In 2009 the task force approved the transfer of 36 of the 97 Yemenis detained at that time, subject to appropriate security measures. Seven of those were repatriated between September and December, 2009. Following the attempted bombing of a Detroitbound airliner on December 25, 2009, by a Nigerian national trained in Yemen, President Obama imposed a blanket moratorium on transfers to Yemen fearing that Guantanamo detainees could be recruited by terrorists. During the term of the moratorium only one Yemeni was released. This was the case of Mohammed Odaini who was detained in Pakistan in 2002 when he was 17 years old. U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. concluded that his detention was unlawful and ordered his release on May 26, 2010. 351 This court-ordered release was the only exception to the suspension. 292. On May 23, 2013, President Obama lifted the moratorium and announced that transfers to Yemen would resume on a case-by-case basis subject to the establishment of rehabilitation and monitoring programs. On August 1, 2013, the Presidents of the United States and Yemen issued a joint statement in which the latter affirmed his intention “to establish an extremist rehabilitation program [which] could also facilitate the transfer of Yemeni detainees held at Guantanamo.” 352 This rehabilitation program is reportedly being developed with the assistance of the United Nations. 353 293. U.S. Government officials have indicated that the administration would not necessarily wait until a rehabilitation program has been set up to start transferring 349 350 351 352 353 The New York Times, The Guantanamo Docket. Final Report, Guantanamo Review Task Force, January 22, 2010, p. 18. The decision is available at: https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2004cv1254-873 The White House, Joint Statement by the United States and Yemen, August 1, 2013. Available at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-Aoffice/2013/08/01/joint-statement-united-states-and-yemen See, The Yemenis at Guantanamo, March 30, 2014. Available at: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2014/03/salim_hamdan_and_the_yemeni_p risoners_who_can_t_leave_the_prison_at_guant.html; and The New York Times, Panel Recommends Transferring Yemeni From Guantanamo, January 9, 2014. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/10/us/panel-recommends-transferring-yemeni-from-guantanamo.html Inter-American Commission on Human Rights | IACHR