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Guantánamo's Eldest Detainee Goes Home

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The oldest detainee at Guantánamo Bay -- an Afghan man who is at least 71 and used a walker at the U.S. prison in Cuba -- has been sent home, his lawyer says.

Haji Nasrat Khan, with a flowing white beard and fading eyesight and hearing, was among five Afghan men transferred from the U.S. prison in southeastern Cuba over the weekend, said attorney Peter Ryan, who received the news by e-mail from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Ryan was not told why Khan was transferred, and was trying to determine whether he would be held in custody in Afghanistan or allowed to return home.

The U.S. military did not disclose the names of the five men sent back to Afghanistan and declined to comment.

With the latest transfers, the military now holds about 445 men on suspicion of links to al Qaeda or the Taliban, including about 115 who the U.S. has determined are eligible for release or transfer.

To be eligible for release, the U.S. must conclude the detainee no longer poses a threat to the United Sates, has no further intelligence value and does not merit criminal prosecution, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon.

U.S. forces captured the elderly detainee's son, Hiztullah Nasrat Yar, in a compound with some 700 weapons, including small arms and rockets, according to military records.

Khan and his son told the military panel that the younger man was guarding the weapons for the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The father had said he was arrested while complaining about his son's capture several days later.

The military said both father and son had links to the Taliban -- a notion Khan once ridiculed at a military hearing. ''How could I be an enemy combatant if I was not able to stand up?'' he asked, according to transcripts released to the AP.

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