KABUL, April 19: The United States has released 17 Afghan detainees from military custody at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and they will be handed to Afghan authorities after arriving home on Tuesday, officials said. Abdul Wakil Omari, spokesman for the Afghan Supreme Court, said the men would be formally transferred to the control of local officials at a ceremony later in the day.

“Seventeen prisoners have been released from Guantanamo Bay,” Omari told AFP. “They are in the country.”

The detainees’ fate would be decided later, he added. It was not clear if the men would face any charges in Afghanistan.

The release comes three weeks after the United States said it had cleared 38 foreign nationals held at the naval base of their controversial status as “enemy combatants” and said they would be sent to their home countries soon.

Officials said the decision had been reached following a 10-month-long review of the cases of 558 detainees captured in Afghanistan and other countries.—AFP