The Trump administration wants to release a dual U.S.-Saudi citizen accused of being an ISIS fighter by the week's end.

According to court documents filed Wednesday, the administration wishes to release him in an undisclosed Syrian town in the next 72 hours.

Known only as John Doe, the man has been held as an enemy combatant in U.S. custody in Iraq since September after he was turned over by Syrian Democratic Forces, an American-backed militia group.

SDF apprehended him at the border of Turkey and Syria.

Doe, however, insists he was in Syria to "report" on ISIS rather than lend support to the organization.

In the June 6 petition before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Justice Department attorneys on behalf of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis gave notice to Doe that the U.S. government intended to release him in "a town or outside an Internally Displaced Person camp."

"Petitioner [Doe] did not identify a preference between the two locations and would not agree to the release as Respondent [the Trump administration] described it," the document reads.

"Accordingly, out of an abundance of caution, the Department is filing this Notice of its intent to release Petitioner in the town specified in the Declaration no sooner than 72 hours hence," it continues, referring to an attached declaration not publicly available.



NEW: DOJ says the government plans to release John Doe, the American suspected of ties to ISIS who has for months been challenging his detention by the US military in Iraq. Plan is to release him in Syria, per filing https://t.co/O9JQ51PKKh pic.twitter.com/1uKulWBMYh — Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) June 6, 2018

The ACLU, which is representing the man in his habeas corpus petition, slammed the Trump administration's decision on Wednesday as "a death warrant" as opposed to a release.

"Instead of offering a safe release, they want to dump an American citizen onto the side of the road in a war-torn country without any assurances of protection and no identification," ACLU attorney Jonathan Hafetz said in a statement.

"Our fight for our client's right to due process has also become a fight for his right to life. We'll be asking the court to immediately intervene and ensure the safe release of our client," he added.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in May denied a previous Pentagon request to transfer Doe to Saudi Arabia, where he also has citizenship.