5 Yemeni detainees released from Guantanamo

Five Guantanamo detainees originally from Yemen were released Wednesday, with four going to Oman and one to Estonia.

None of the men, who had all been at the camp since its early days, were ever charged with a crime. Although each prisoner had been cleared for transfer for several years, they were not permitted to return to Yemen, as U.S. officials feared they would join al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

This is the first time Oman and Estonia have agreed to take in detainees, The Miami Herald reports. Abdulwahab Alkebsi with the Center for International Private Enterprise told the Herald that Oman is one of the most stable countries in the Middle East, and would be "a better place to reintegrate into life than Latin America or Europe." It also has a "highly trained and intrusive" security system that can closely monitor the men.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.