A year ago, an Air Force prosecutor swore out charges of conspiracy and providing material support to a terrorist organization against Fouad al Rabia, a 50-year-old Kuwaiti aviation engineer who was seized by U.S. forces in Afghanistan nearly eight years ago.

Now a U.S. district court judge in Washington has ordered him released from the Guantanamo military prison, saying the government has presented no evidence of his guilt.

The decision, recently made public in a redacted form, not only casts a harsh spotlight on the kind of evidence Pentagon prosecutors were relying on to bring a war crimes charge against Rabia, but also leaves the Obama administration with a dilemma.