Algeria puts ex-Gitmo prisoners on parole

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) An Algerian judge has put two detainees recently released from the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay under "judicial control," a type of supervised parole.

The men, identified as Nabil Hadjarab and Mutia Sadiq Ahmad Sayyab, were returned to Algeria on Aug. 28 and detained pending interrogation by a prosecutor, which took place Thursday, the state news agency reported, quoting the court of Algiers.

Their treatment follows the pattern for other Algerians released from the prison. Most of the other 13 returned from Guantanamo so far have been released.

Both men were cleared for release from Guantanamo years ago and joined hunger strikes to protest their continuing detention. Writer John Grisham recently called attention to Hadjarab's case in a New York Times article.

Hadjarab's French lawyer Joseph Breham, said he is working on getting him resettled in France, where his whole family lives.

"We are overjoyed he has been cleared (for parole) and now we are going to work to return him to France," he told The Associated Press, adding that his client would have to check in with authorities every month.

There are nearly 90 prisoners cleared for release or transfer out of a population of 164.

Their release, the first from Guantanamo in nearly a year, followed a pledge by President Barack Obama to renew efforts to close the prison on the U.S. base in Cuba, an initiative that has been thwarted by Congress.