Italy to Take Three Gitmo Detainees

NEW YORK--(Italy Watch)--In what is sure to be a controversial gesture Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi confirmed this week that Italy will accept three detainees from the U.S. Navy's Guantánamo Bay installation.

Speaking in May 2009 Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini stated that Italy was studying the possibility of taking "two Tunisians" from the Cuba-based detention center.

EU foreign ministers endorsed the idea of prisoner transfers to EU territory after the Obama administration expressed desire to close down the prison by January 2010.

Prison transfers to the EU will be on the condition that the US "recognizes its responsibility to accept certain former detainees" -- a move that is largely unpopular in the United States. There are 230 prisoners reported to still be in the Guantánamo Bay facility.

Italy is the fifth EU nation to accept detainees. England, France, Albania and Sweden have already accepted prisoners, and just yesterday the Obama administration formally asked Spain.