German official says Berlin has turned down US request to take 2 Guantanamo prisoners

Germany says it turns down 2 Gitmo transfers

BERLIN — A German government spokesman says the U.S. asked Berlin to consider taking two prisoners from Guantanamo Bay but Germany turned down the request.

The spokesman says the request in late May was not backed up by enough information to prove that the men would pose no threat in Germany. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the U.S. had not made the request public.

The Financial Times Deutschland reported Thursday that the request involved men from Syria and Tunisia.

The spokesman would not confirm the prisoners’ nationalities. U.S. Embassy spokesman Bruce Armstrong declined to comment.

The German spokesman said the government had requested more information on the men and an explanation of why they could not be resettled in the U.S.

The U.S. has just announced plans to resettle 17 Chinese Muslims, or Uighurs, in Palau and Bermuda.

In May, the U.S. asked Germany to consider taking nine of the Uighurs.