RABAT, Morocco (AP) — A former Guantanamo Bay inmate must spend another month in a Moroccan jail after a judge postponed a hearing Wednesday in his case, which has angered human rights activists and his family.
Younis Abdurrahman Chekkouri has been held for more than six weeks without formal charges. He spent 13 years in Guantanamo, also without being charged.
Chekkouri appeared at a hearing Wednesday, but the judge postponed proceedings until Dec. 3, leaving Chekkouri in custody until then.
His family still doesn’t know why he’s being held.
The U.S. Justice Department had alleged that he had ties to the extremist Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, or GICM, but it later dropped that allegation.
He was released as part of a renewed push by President Barack Obama to release Guantanamo prisoners deemed to pose no threat. Chekkouri’s lawyers say the U.S. government promised he would be quickly released upon his return home.
Chekkouri “saw a psychologist last week at the prison and honestly, his mental health situation is in a poor state,” said Khalil Idrissi, Chekkouri’s lawyer in Morocco. Idrissi cited his almost 14 years of imprisonment as a source of his poor health.