PARIS, July 3 (UPI) -- Six men formerly held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp went on trial in Paris Monday on terrorism-related charges.

The men were captured in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11 attacks and held at Guantanamo until 2004 and 2005, when they were released following negotiations between the French and U.S. governments.

The prosecution alleges that they were fighting alongside the Taliban after having been recruited in 1998 by an Algerian man, Rachid Boukhalfa.

Currently being held in a British prison, Boukhalfa is suspected of helping plan al-Qaida attacks in the United States.

The men are charged with "associating with criminals in relation to a terrorist organization," and will be judged on their trips to Afghanistan between 2000 and 2001, where the prosecution says five of them attended al-Qaida training camps. The sixth man, Imad Kanouni, is alleged to have undergone fundamentalist religious training. Two also face counterfeiting charges.

The trial, which follows the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last week that the military tribunals set up to try Guantanamo detainees are unlawful, is likely to fuel debate over conditions at the camp.

One of the defendants, Khaled Ben Mustapha, told a French newspaper he was regularly tortured by his U.S. captors, while several others have launched legal proceedings in France in relation to their detention.

If convicted, the men face up to 10 years in prison. The trial is expected to last several weeks.

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