A Guantanamo detainee who won a landmark case against the Bush administration has been released to France, dpa quoted the Washington Post as reporting today. Lakhdar Boumediene, a 43-year-old Algerian, was flown from the naval installation on Cuba to join relatives in France after the French government agreed earlier this month to accept him, the Post reported, citing diplomatic and government sources. Boumediene won a key case before the Supreme Court last year. The high bench ruled against then president George W Bush, concluding that Guantanamo detainees had the right to challenge their detention in federal courts. The Pentagon and the French Embassy in Washington offered no immediate comment on the report. Boumediene was one of six arrested in Bosnia in 2001 and accused of plotting an attack on the US embassy in Sarajevo. A federal judge in November ordered the release of five of the men, including Boumediene. The transfer comes as President Barack Obama is expected to announce Friday that he will keep Bush's tribunals in place for trying terrorist suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, but provide them with greater rights in court.
