An American citizen detained by the U.S. military for more than a year after being captured in Syria on suspicion of being a member of ISIS has been released, a Pentagon spokesman confirmed to The Hill.

The New York Times, citing unidentified U.S. officials, reported earlier that the man, a dual U.S.-Saudi citizen known publicly only as John Doe, was released to Bahrain, where his wife and daughter are living.

The man’s American passport was canceled, the Times added, but he did not relinquish his American citizenship.

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"After our client succeeded in forcing the government to try and defend to a court its extreme and inaccurate claim of detention authority, the government opted instead to release him as a free man," said Jonathan Hafetz, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which has been representing the man in court.

"This is a victory our client fought for long and hard," he added in a statement. "The victory sends a strong message that the president cannot take away an American’s liberty without due process, and it shows the continuing importance of judicial review.”

John Doe said in an ACLU news release that his case “has shown the worst and the best of my country.”

“No one, no matter what they are suspected of, should be treated the way my government treated me,” he said. "Once I got the chance to stand up for my rights, the Constitution and the courts protected me.”

The man’s identity has been kept secret under court order. But the Times identified him as Abdulrahman Ahmad Alsheikh by comparing an unredacted Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) intake form it obtained independently to a redacted form included in court filings.

Alsheikh was captured by U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in Syria in September 2017. He was then transferred to the custody of the U.S. military, which had been holding him in Iraq ever since.

While President Trump Donald John TrumpBiden says voters should choose who nominates Supreme Court justice Trump, Biden will not shake hands at first debate due to COVID-19 Pelosi: Trump Supreme Court pick 'threatens' Affordable Care Act MORE pledged on the campaign trail to send newly captured ISIS suspects to Guantanamo Bay, his administration has instead brought them to the United States for prosecution.

For Alsheikh, though, officials have said they did not believe they had enough admissible evidence to charge him in federal court.

The government said that he attended ISIS training in Syria starting in March 2015 and swore allegiance to a deputy of ISIS’s leader.

Alsheikh has held that he traveled to Syria as a freelance journalist, but was arrested and forced to work for ISIS, according to court filings.

Despite not knowing him originally, the ACLU filed a habeas corpus case on his behalf in October 2017. The Trump administration argued the group had no standing to represent a man it did not know, but a judge ruled in the ACLU’s favor and ordered the military to let its lawyers speak to Alsheikh.

The administration then sought to transfer Alsheikh to Saudi Arabia, where he holds dual citizenship, but was blocked by courts. It had also sought to release him in Syria, but his lawyers argued that would be a death sentence.

The ACLU’s case had the potential to undermine the legal underpinnings of the war against ISIS. The case argued that because ISIS is not explicitly covered under the current congressional authorization for the use of military force, Alsheikh could not legally be held as an enemy combatant.

Courts have never weighed in on whether ISIS is covered under the war authorization, and releasing Alsheikh means the issue will not get a definitive court ruling for the time being.

--This report was updated at 11:38 a.m.