“As far as I know, they are still going to Palau,” but it is not clear when, he added.
A federal judge last year ordered 13 Uighur detainees released in the U.S., where families from a large Uighur community were willing to host them.
But that decision was overturned on appeal, pushing their lawyers to turn to the U.S. Supreme Court in a bid to free the men, who hail from the Uighur Muslim minority in China’s remote Xinjiang region.
The high court has announced that it would hear the case.
Six other detainees are willing to be resettled in Palau, and preparations for their arrival here are underway.
The AFP has reported that Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told the court to affirm the ruling blocking the 13 detainees, who have been cleared of all charges, from being released onto U.S. soil.
McConnell said the courts should leave control over U.S. borders to the White House and Congress, “including deciding whether and how foreign nationals outside our borders may be admitted within them.”
The U.S. Congress has approved legislation authorizing President Obama to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to the U.S. for trial provided they give notice and meet certain security requirements.
The men, who have been held on the U.S. military base in Cuba for more than seven years, were among 22 Uighurs living in a self-contained camp in Afghanistan when the U.S-led invasion of the country began in Oct. 2001.
Amid U.S. fears that they face persecution if returned to China, five were freed in 2006 and sent to Albania, and four have been resettled in Bermuda.
Another six have accepted to go to Palau, but are still waiting to be transferred from Guantanamo. The 13 still in jail contend they should be released in the U.S.
