Yemen frees bin Laden driver after jail term ends

Osama bin Laden's ex-driver, Salim Hamdan, has been set free in Yemen where he returned in November after serving seven years at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, a relative said Monday.

Hamdan arrived at his family's home in Sanaa on Thursday upon being released by Yemeni police "after presenting a commercial guarantee," the relative told AFP requesting anonymity.

The guarantee, a form of bail in which a businessman stands surety for him, "is due to the fact that he remains a suspected member of al-Qaeda," an official told AFP, asking not to be named.

Salim Hamdan, former driver for Osama bin Laden, is from Yemen

Hamdan had signed a pledge not to commit any violent acts, his attorney, Khaled al-Ansi, told Reuters.

Hamdan had been held at the political security prison since he returned to Yemen on Nov. 26.

Human rights groups have condemned the Guantanamo tribunals and said they are rigged

In the first U.S. war crimes trial since World War Two, Hamdan was found guilty in August on one count of providing material support to terrorism, but cleared of more serious charges that he conspired and plotted attacks for Al-Qaeda. Hamdan was convicted of providing personal services in support of terrorism

Hamdan was sentenced to 66 months in prison but given credit for time served at Guantanamo. His term was to end by Dec. 31 and the Pentagon said the remainder would be served in Yemen.

In the first Guantanamo terrorism trial, a jury of six U.S. military officers sentenced Hamdan to five years and six months for supporting terrorism by driving and guarding bin Laden, leader of al-Qaeda. Taking into account time served, this amounted to another five months.

Hamdan, who is about 40, was detained by U.S. forces in Afghanistan in late 2001 and arrived at Guantanamo in 2002.

He was bin Laden's former driver and sometime bodyguard, but said he took the job because he needed the $200 monthly salary and did not know or support his employer's aims.

He was the first prisoner convicted in a full trial of the widely-criticized tribunals established to try non-Americans on terrorism charges outside civilian and military courts at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

About 100 of the 250 prisoners remaining at Guantanamo are from Yemen, bin Laden's ancestral home. Yemen, a poor Arab state seen by some in the West as a militant stronghold, joined the U.S.-led anti-terror war after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities.

The Guantanamo tribunals have been condemned by human rights groups and U.S. scholars who say they were rigged to convict by allowing evidence obtained through coercion, hearsay and torture and retroactive laws.