Bosnia-Herzegovina ? Three Guantanamo prisoners were flown to Bosnia on Tuesday and released to their families in the first detainee transfer ordered by a U.S. federal judge, according to local police and an attorney for the men.

A judge in Washington ordered the release of Algerian-born Boudella al Hajj, Mustafa Ait Idr and Mohammed Nechle last month, saying the U.S. government’s case was not strong enough to continue holding them.

The order came in the first hearing on the Bush administration’s evidence for keeping prisoners at the U.S. Navy base in eastern Cuba as “enemy combatants.”

An unscheduled Tuesday night flight to the Sarajevo airport delivered a group of men to police who rushed them out of the building, put them in armored vehicles and took them to state police headquarters.

“This is a great victory. A great day for me and my family,” said Nadja Dizdarevic, the wife of al Hajj.

Two hours after the plane landed, a uniformed officer standing outside police headquarters told media that the men were allowed to go home after going through an identification process. The officer did not provide his name.

Six Algerians were detained in Bosnia in 2001 on suspicion of plotting to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo and held at Guantanamo since January 2002.