U.S. citizen held 13 months for suspected ties to Islamic State is freed

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Oct. 29, 2018 / 5:40 PM GMT/ Source: Associated Press

By Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The U.S. has released a dual American-Saudi citizen suspected of working with the Islamic State and detained by the U.S. military for more than a year without charge.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the detainee, confirmed Monday that he is now a free man. The ACLU said that under a confidential agreement, the U.S. government has released him to an unidentified country.

The New York Times said he was released in Bahrain, but The Associated Press could not independently confirm where he was released.

The release of the detainee, who once lived and studied in Louisiana, follows months of legal wrangling between government lawyers and the ACLU over what the U.S. should do with suspected militants picked up on the battlefield.