A federal judge is forcing the release of 28 videos of force-feeding a Gantanamo Bay prisoner, against the government's protest of revealing those classified documents.

U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler ordered the release of the videos Friday, which show the force-feeding of Syrian prisoner Wa'el Dhiab, Politico reported.

The move is unprecedented.

"The Court is well aware, as the Government has emphasized, that in no case involving Guantanamo Bay detainees has any court ordered disclosure of classified information over the Government's opposition. However -- to be clear -- that does not mean that in a given factual situation no court has the discretion to do so if warranted. Quite the contrary," Kessler wrote in an opinion. "Our Court of Appeals has stated that it is the judiciary's responsibility, when ruling on an issue as overwhelmingly important as diminution of our precious First Amendment rights, to ensure that classification of the items in question ... is proper."

The government has argued that the disclosure of the videos is a threat to national security.

But Kessler said the executive branch cannot control court records.

As a balancing measure, Kessler ordered faces, voices and names of those other than Dhiab be deleted before the videos are released to the public.

At least 16 news organizations are asking for the release of the video, as reports are comparing the force-feeding to torture.

Dhiab, a Syrian man who has never been charged and has been cleared to leave Guantánamo by the U.S. government for more than five years, has been fighting to reform the way he and other hunger-strikers have been treated, according to a letter by Dhiab's attorney published in the Guardian.

He is fighting to stop force-feeding, claiming it is a form of torture and demeaning treatment of the prisoners.

"Gitmo is not just a prison. It is a warehouse of the forgotten, run by a military that doesn't have the faintest idea how to treat the sick souls of people held without charge for over a dozen years," wrote Cori Crider in the Guardian.

No deadline has been established for the release of the videos, but Kessler has ordered the hearing will be open to the public.

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