Libya has allowed 37 Islamists, including a former driver of Osama bin Laden and members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, to leave a prison in which they had been held since 2007.

The prisoners, who had been handed over by the Americans, are mostly young detainees who were either connected with the LIFG, or jihadists who collaborated with Al-Qaeda in Iraq or north Africa.

The men, wearing white traditional robes, were assembled in a tent in Tripoli’s Abu Salim prison before being reunited with families.

Prison authorities said they were being allowed to leave as they completed a rehabilitation program, aimed at getting them to renounce violence and reintegrate them into Libyan society.

Bin Laden’s former driver, Nasser Tailamoun, and former Guantanamo detainee Abu Sofian Ben Guemou, handed over by the Americans in 2007, were among those released.

Members of the Gaddafi Foundation, a human rights group founded by Libyan leader Colonel Moamer Gaddafi, said more Islamists would be released soon.

214 prisoners were released in March.