A US court has for the first time rejected the classification of a prisoner held in Guantanamo Bay as an "enemy combatant".
Huzaifa Parhat, a Chinese Muslim, has been held since he was captured in Afghanistan in 2001.
He is now free to seek immediate release in a US district court.
This follows a US Supreme Court ruling this month that gave foreign Guantanamo Bay detainees the right to challenge their detention in civilian courts.
Mr Parhat is an ethnic Uighur from Xinjiang province in China, where it meets Central Asia.
The US government argued he was a member of the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, which it said had links to al-Qaeda.
But Mr Parhat's lawyers said China and not the United States was his enemy.
Uighur activists are seeking autonomy from China, and there are sporadic outbreaks of violence in the province.
Headache for US
The three-judge panel directed the US military to release Mr Parhat, transfer him or promptly set up a new military tribunal to try him.
The court also specified that Mr Parhat could petition a federal judge for his immediate release in light of the Supreme Court's 12 June decision.
Mr Parhat is one of several Uighurs being held at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Their case has become a diplomatic and legal headache for the US, which has tried to find a country willing to accept the Uighurs at the same time as defending its decision to hold them as enemy combatants.
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