– ALGERIAN GITMO DETAINEE RELEASED

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* Lakhdar Boumediene, 42, an Algerian man held for seven years by the USA in Guantanamo has arrived in France after being set free from Guantanamo Bay, on Friday 05/15/2009.

Lakhdar  Boumediene was held in Bosnia in 2001 within the frame of Extraordinary Rendition, along with 5 other Algerians, but was cleared in 11/2008 of any wrongdoing and cleared for release. The US judge ruled he had been illegally detained (see – Gitmo 11.20.08 ). The 5 Algerians and a sixth suspect also arrested in Bosnia in 2001 were formally exonerated by Bosnian prosecutors in 2004.

All six said they were subjected to harsh interrogation techniques at Guantanamo, which involved prolonged isolation, forced nudity, and sleep deprivation.

He won a landmark Supreme Court case granting Guantanamo inmates the right to challenge their confinement. Three of his colleagues who were arrested with him in Bosnia Mustafa Ait Idir, Mohamed Nechla and Hadj Boudella were released to Sarajevo, Bosnia, already on 12/16/2008. Saber Lahmar, the fifth defendant, also cleared for released was held in Guantanamo (see – Gitmo 12.16.08). He was released, eventually, on 11/30/2009, and transferred to France. A sixth suspect Bensayah Belkacem remained in Guantanamo.  .  

The release comes on the same day that USA President Barack Obama announced that he was reviving military trials for some detainees.

Earlier this month, France offered to accept Lakhdar  Boumediene, after he was cleared of any wrongdoing. His wife and two daughters, who went to Algeria after his arrest, will also be taken in by France, it said.

Lakhdar  Boumediene had been on hunger strike since 12/2006 and was force-fed twice a day through a nose-drip, the AFP news agency reported.

Lakhdar  Boumediene was one of two detainees who won a case before the US Supreme Court last June on behalf of 37 foreign nationals at the US-run prison camp. The ruling gave Guantanamo prisoners the long-standing habeas corpus right to challenge their detention in US civilian courts.

Since then, federal judges have ordered the release of 25 prisoners, including three of Lakhdar  Boumediene’s fellow Algerian nationals.

Today (05/2009) there are about 200 detainees in Guantanamo. About 170 suppose to face Martial court over terror charges in USA. The Obama administration is still looking for a solution to about 30 detainees, 8 of them Chinese citizens from the Muslim Uyghur of Xinjiang province in North-West China (see – [ETIP]).  

 

 

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