[JURIST] The US Department of Defense [official website] announced Saturday that it has transferred to Afghanistan five detainees [press release] formerly held as enemy combatants in Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive]. It is unclear where these detainees are from and why they were selected for transfer. More than 300 detainees have been transferred from Guantanamo to other countries since the US government starting holding suspected terrorists at the US naval base [official website] there in January 2002. It was reported in January that an Afghanistan prison was being improved [JURIST report] to accommodate 100 Guantanamo detainees expected to be transferred there in the near future.

About 120 of the Guantanamo's remaining 445 detainees [list; JURIST report] are eligible for transfer or release. Final decisions on such matters rest on talks between the US and the potential destination countries. UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak [official website] told an Austrian radio station in June that European governments could help bring about the closing of the controversial detention center [JURIST report] by accepting detainees [JURIST report] for detention in their home countries. Reuters has more.