"We were only allowed out twice per week, for half an hour,” Mohamed added. The man described the way shackles were placed around the prisoners' feet when they were allowed to leave their cells, mostly for interrogation.

"I wasn't Taliban, but the Taliban made me fight with them. I'm innocent. I'm a farmer," he added.

Mohammed Hagi Fiz, an old man with the disputed age told foreign reporters, crowding his hospital bed in Kabul: "I don't know why the Americans arrested me. I told them I was innocent. I'm just an old man," he said.

"They interrogated us for hours at a time. They wanted to know, 'Where are you from? Are you a member of the Taliban? Did you support the Taliban? Were your relatives Taliban? Did the Taliban give you weapons?'" he said.

Mohammed Sadiq, a third released detainee was arrested at his home, he said. Sadiq, 90 years old, according to his own estimates, and in his 70s, according to the Americans’ can hardly walk without his cane.

The three men will receive $500 as a compensation to be divided among themselves, according to Afghanistan’s Interior Minister Taj Mohammed Wardak, quoted by the Associated Press, Tuesday.

"Maybe it was a misunderstanding. We still don't know if they are guilty or innocent, but the U.S. released them, so we will release them tomorrow," Wardak said.

625 prisoners, mostly Afghans but also from many other countries, including Europeans are still held at Guantanamo, under the category of “enemy combatants.”

Mohamed, the farmer told reporters: "There are still many of us left in that prison."

"They think they'll die there," he added.

Press International News Agency

Photo: Prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay.
US Department of Defense Photo