Hungary to receive former Guantanamo prisoners (maybe 1 or 2)

Another meeting was held between deputy Foreign Minister Marta Fekszi Horvath and US Ambassador to Hungary April H. Foley on Hungary's possible reception of former Guantanamo prisoners, Jan Krc, press attache of the US Embassy in Budapest, told MTI on Tuesday.

Marta Fekszi Horvath told MTI earlier in the day that currently 27 inmates were waiting for reception in Guantanamo, and the maximum Hungary would receive is one or two.

Hungary wants to wait and see the results of the negotiations of the European Union's justice and refugee commissioners and the Czech foreign minister in Washington on March 16, on the reception of Guantanamo prisoners, Horvath said.

There is no uniform standpoint within the EU on the issue, Horvath said, adding that the former Guantanamo inmates will likely not be granted refugee status in Hungary.

Instead, they would receive a special status, which would not allow them to get travel documents, and the authorities would regularly inspect them, she said.

If Mr. Hovath is correct, President Obama is considering what to do with 217 Guantanamo detainees, how many to prosecute, indefinitely detain, or clear for release. From that number, it is not yet clear what the adminstration plans to do with the 97 Yemenis held at Gitmo, including 2 high-value detainees. On January 26, 2009, the Long War Journal reported:

President Saleh announced that the US will repatriate 94 Yemeni detainees within three months. Yemen is building a rehabilitation center with US assistance, and the FBI this week delivered a half million dollars worth of biometric collection equipment including mobile fingerprint sets. President Saleh said Saturday that Yemen had rejected a US plan to release the 94 to Saudi Arabia for rehabilitation. In a Jan. 23 interview, US Ambassador to Yemen, Steven Seche noted, “The Yemeni government legitimately can cite capacity issues that hinder its effectiveness against terrorists.”

If both reports are accurate, that leaves the dispositions of an addtional 123 terrorists to be determined.

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