Last week we wrote about a Guantanamo detainee who after three years imprisonment, became the first detainee to be declared by the military commission not to be an enemy combatant. He will be freed and returned to his home country.

What about the three years he unjustly spent at Camp X-Ray? Is he entitled to compensation? Maybe.

Legal affairs writer Vanessa Blum examines the issue and his possible routes to recovery:

Among the remedies available to detainees released from Guantanamo Bay are suits against private contractors under the Alien Tort Statute, claims against U.S. government officials under the Federal Tort Claims Act, or so-called Bivens actions, which allege civil rights violations by federal agents.

Ms. Blum concludes:

While each legal instrument presents obstacles, recent Supreme Court decisions may strengthen the detainees' hand....While to many the current situation seems less egregious than the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, observers on both sides of the Guantanamo issue agree that there is no legal barrier to prevent the government from voluntarily compensating released prisoners.

"It would be very nice if they paid the people released at least as much as they paid the bounty hunters for capturing them," says Shearman & Sterling partner Thomas Wilner, lead lawyer to 12 Kuwaiti detainees at Guantanamo Bay.