U.S. judge orders release of 5 of the 6 'Bosnian Algerians' detained in Guantanamo

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Libéré de Guantanamo, l'Algérien Lakhdar Boumediene est accueilli en France

Vendredi 15 Mai 2009 -- L'Algérien Lakhdar Boumediene, 42 ans, ex-détenu de Guantanamo innocenté par la justice américaine, est arrivé vendredi en France où il va désormais vivre, a annoncé le ministère français des Affaires étrangères.

"Lakhdar Boumediene est arrivé aujourd'hui en France en provenance du centre de détention de Guantanamo", a déclaré dans un communiqué le porte-parole du ministère, Eric Chevallier, sans préciser où l'ex-détenu a atterri. "Désormais libre, nous souhaitons que Lakhdar Boumediene puisse retrouver une vie normale. Le gouvernement a prévu une prise en charge médicale si son état de santé le requiert", a ajouté le porte-parole. L'ex-détenu devait retrouver en France sa femme Abassia Bouadjimi et leurs deux filles, Radjaa, 13 ans, et Rahma, 8 ans, arrivées d'Algérie depuis peu, selon des sources concordantes.

La France est le premier pays de l'Union européenne à accueillir un détenu libéré de Guantanamo, qui ne soit ni un résident ni un citoyen français, sur la foi de la promesse du président américain Barack Obama de fermer la prison. L'Algérien était emprisonné depuis plus de sept ans et observait une grève de la faim depuis plus de deux ans. Il était nourri de force.

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Freed Algerian ex-Guantanamo detainee lands in France

PARIS, May 15, 2009 (AFP) — Algerian detainee Lakhdar Boumediene, held for seven years at Guantanamo Bay prison camp, arrived Friday night in France after having been flown out of the U.S. jail, the French foreign ministry announced.

"Lakhdar Boumediene arrived today in France from the Guantanamo detention centre," spokesman Eric Chevallier said in a statement, without specifying where in France the former terror suspect had landed.

"Henceforth a free man, we hope that Lakhdar Boumediene can regain a normal life. The government has put in place a plan for his medical supervision if his state of health warrants it."

France confirmed on May 6 that it had agreed to accept Boumediene, 42, who was cleared of any wrongdoing in November.

Algeria is a former French colony that secured its independence after a 1954-1962 war.

"France has consistently called for the closure of the Guantanamo detention centre and we have saluted President (Barack) Obama's decision (to do so)," Chevallier added.

The spokesman stressed that links with the reception country were a key part of any European state's decision to accept released detainees, with members of Boumediene's family already resident in France.

"He has been cleared of all charges relative to participation in eventual terrorist activities, by the decisions of the judiciaries of various countries including the U.S. which ordered his release," Chevallier underlined.

Boumediene, who was detained in late 2001 when he was living in Bosnia, had been on hunger strike since December 2006 and was force-fed two times a day through a nose-drip.

His wife and two daughters, aged nine and 13, who went to Algeria after his arrest were also due to be taken in by France.

Boumediene was among six Guantanamo inmates arrested in Bosnia in 2001 and initially charged with plotting to attack the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo.

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L’Algérien Lakhdar Boumediene hospitalisé dans un hôpital militaire à Paris

Samedi 16 Mai 2009 -- L'Algérien Lakhdar Boumediene, ex-détenu de Guantanamo arrivé vendredi en France, se trouvait samedi à l'hôpital militaire Percy à Clamart, à l'ouest de Paris, a-t-on appris de sources militaires, une admission entourée de la plus grande discrétion. L'ex-détenu de 42 ans innocenté par la justice américaine, affaibli par plus de sept ans d'emprisonnement et plus de deux ans de grève de la faim, avait atterri vendredi sur la base militaire d'Evreux (Eure), selon les mêmes sources.

Lakhdar Boumediene, qui a voyagé dans un avion militaire américain, devait retrouver en France sa femme, Abassia Bouadjimi, et leurs deux filles, Radjaa, 13 ans, et Rahma, 8 ans, arrivées depuis peu d'Algérie où elles résidaient, selon l'avocat américain de l'ex-détenu, Robert Kirsch. Selon l'avocat, Lakhdar Boumediene devrait passer quelques jours à l'hôpital pour des examens. Il devrait ensuite rejoindre un appartement mis à sa disposition par le gouvernement français pour se réadapter à une vie normale. Le reste de la famille de l'ex-détenu résidant en France affirmait samedi quant à elle n'avoir aucune nouvelle de lui depuis plusieurs jours.

"On n'a pas dormi de toute la nuit. On est de plus en plus stressé parce qu'on ne sait rien du tout", a déclaré à l'AFP sa belle-soeur, Louiza Baghdadi, qui vit à Nice avec ses cinq enfants dans un appartement où elle se dit disposée à accueillir son beau-frère. Mme Baghdadi, avec des larmes dans la voix, s'est dit certaine que son beau-frère "n'est pas bien". "Ce qui serait normal c'est que le gouvernement nous donne des informations, nous dise comment il est entré, comment il va, qu'on sache s'il va venir ou non habiter chez nous. Mais nous ne sommes au courant de rien", a-t-elle dit.

L'hôpital d'instruction des armées Percy de Clamart (Hauts-de-Seine) est un hôpital polyvalent, d'une capacité de 426 lits, dont le personnel est composé majoritairement de militaires mais qui accueille principalement des patients civils. L'hôpital avait accueilli le président palestinien Yasser Arafat, qui y était mort en novembre 2004.

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Guantanamo Bay hospitalized in France after release

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2009 (CNN) -- The Algerian released from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and taken to France has been hospitalized, CNN affiliate France 2 reported Saturday.

Lakhdar Boumediene is at the Clamart military hospital, the station reported. Louisa Baghdadi, Boumediene's sister-in-law from Nice, told the station she and her husband "will be disappointed" if he's in poor shape. She said she "doesn't know how he has changed."

Boumediene, who is not a French citizen, was sent to France because he has relatives there. He arrived Friday.

"France decided to take in Lakhdar Boumediene, who expressed the willingness to come to our country where members of his family reside," the French Foreign Ministry said.

Boumediene had been in custody since he and five others were arrested in Bosnia in 2001. Last year, a federal judge ordered five of the six men freed for lack of evidence supporting the accusation against them - that they planned to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia.

The 5-4 Supreme Court ruling bearing his name declared that detainees in the U.S. Navy prison at Guantanamo Bay have a right to appear in court and be charged. If that doesn't happen, it said, they must be released.

Three of Boumediene's co-defendants were released earlier to Bosnia, where they are naturalized citizens. The fifth defendant ordered freed, Sabir Lahmar, is believed to still be in custody at Guantanamo Bay.

The French statement noted that France has long called for the closing of the Guantanamo Bay facility and "hailed President Obama's decision to do so."

"France reviews any individual request on a case-by-case basis in the light of its legal and security implications and the existence of a connection with our country," spokesman Eric Chevallier said.

The statement noted court cases that have been decided in Boumediene's favor, including the one ordering his release.

Boumediene is the second noncitizen to be accepted by a European country. Two months ago, an Ethiopian citizen, Binyam Mohamed, was accepted by the United Kingdom because he had previously lived there.

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French doctors say ex-Guantanamo inmate is OK

PARIS, May 16, 2009 (AP) — French doctors for a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who recently ended a more than two year hunger strike have said he's in stable condition, the man's lawyer said Saturday.

Robert Kirsch, a Boston attorney representing Lakhdar Boumediene, said the 43-year-old Algerian is resting at a medical facility in France and is expected to be discharged sometime next week. Boumediene arrived in France on Friday, after being held for seven years in at the U.S. camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

French authorities agreed to take him in a gesture to President Barack Obama, who has promised to close the prison camp by January and faces the thorny problem of where to send dozens of prisoners who fear mistreatment if returned to their homeland.

In a few days, Boumediene "will go to an apartment that has been rented and he'll start to resume normal life," Kirsch told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his home in Concord, New Hampshire.

"The word is when he got to Paris the doctors said he was OK," Kirsch said, adding that Boumediene lost more than 40 pounds (18 kilograms) during his two-and-a-half year long hunger strike and now weighs about 130 pounds (59 kilograms).

Boumediene, suspected in a bomb plot against the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo, was arrested along with five other Algerians in 2001 in Bosnia.

"It really is a case of an innocent guy and a horrible mistake," Kirsch said of his client.

Speaking Friday after Boumediene's arrival in France, Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said Boumediene "was deemed innocent of all charges relating to the participation in eventual terrorist activities by judicial decisions in several countries, including the United States."

"Now that he is free, we hope that Lakhdar Boumediene can resume a normal life," he said.

Neither Chevallier nor Kirsch would disclose where Boumediene was being treated or which French city he plans to relocate to. But Kirsch said Boumediene's wife and daughter were on hand when his plane touched down in France on Friday and that family members were visiting him in the hospital.

Once released, Boumediene plans to undergo vocational training provided by the French government to help him get a job, Kirsch said. "He's looking for some sort of charitable work," the lawyer said, adding: "He wants to provide for his family."

French officials have declined to comment on Boumediene's status in the country, but Kirsch said "he will very quickly be obtaining the papers he needs to work" and may later apply for French citizenship.

Kirsch said he was present when Boumediene ended the hunger strike he began on Christmas Day, 2006, to protest his detention at Guantanamo Bay. He had been force-fed at the prison camp through a nose tube.

Boumediene ate his first solid post-strike meal — of rice and beans — on Wednesday after it was confirmed he was to be transferred to France on Friday, Kirsch said.

Obama has promised to close the prison at Guantanamo and has urged allies to take some of the 60 inmates who could face abuse, imprisonment or death if returned to their homelands. In a statement Friday, Human Rights Watch said the matter affected prisoners from Algeria, China, Libya, Tunisia and Uzbekistan.

France promised to take one Guantanamo prisoner when Obama attended a NATO summit in April, and said last week it would accept Boumediene.

In June 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case called Boumediene vs. Bush that foreign Guantanamo Bay detainees have rights under the American Constitution to challenge their detention in civilian courts.

On a 5-4 split, the majority said the U.S. government was violating the rights of prisoners there and that the system the Bush administration put in place to classify suspects as enemy combatants and review those decisions is inadequate.

Boumediene was released as Obama announced that he is reviving Bush-era military tribunals for a small number of Guantanamo detainees, with several new legal protections for terror suspects. The system is expected to try fewer than 20 of the 241 detainees now being held at the detention center.

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Lakhdar Boumediene est dans un état de santé satisfaisant, selon Paris

Mardi 19 Mai 2009 -- L'Algérien Lakhdar Boumediene, ex-détenu de Guantanamo arrivé vendredi en France, est dans un état de santé «satisfaisant», a affirmé mardi le ministère français des Affaires étrangères. « Il est dans un état de santé jugé satisfaisant, même s'il y a encore besoin d'un suivi médical pour s'assurer qu'il va bien », a déclaré à la presse le porte-parole du Quai d'Orsay, Eric Chevallier.

L'ex-détenu de 42 ans, innocenté par la justice américaine, affaibli par plus de sept ans d'emprisonnement et plus de deux ans de grève de la faim, est arrivé en France vendredi soir en provenance de Guantanamo. Il a été hospitalisé à l'hôpital militaire Percy à Clamart, à l'ouest de Paris, selon des sources militaires.

M. Chevallier a fait valoir que la discrétion qui a entouré son arrivée, correspondait "au souhait de M. Boumediene et à celui de sa famille". Son épouse Abassia Bouadjimi, et leurs deux filles, Radjaa, 13 ans, et Rahma, 8 ans, venues d'Algérie, étaient vendredi à l'aéroport pour son arrivée et sont hébergées à proximité du lieu où est effectué un "bilan médical complet" de l'ex-détenu, a-t-il affirmé. "Nous le considérons comme un homme libre et souhaitons qu'il puisse retrouver une vie normale", a ajouté le porte-parole.

L'avocat américain de l'ex-détenu, Robert Kirsch, avait indiqué en fin de semaine dernière que son client devait passer quelques jours à l'hôpital pour des examens puis rejoindre un appartement mis à sa disposition par le gouvernement français pour se réadapter à une vie normale.

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Lakhdar Boumediene describes struggle for exoneration

PARIS, May 25, 2009 -- When the nightmare finally ended - seven years at Guantanamo Bay, two years of force-feeding through a tube in his right nostril, the long struggle to proclaim his innocence before a judge, and finally 10 days of hospitalization - Lakhdar Boumediene celebrated with pizza for lunch in a little Paris dive.

"When we were at the restaurant," Boumediene said Monday, shortly after the meal that marked his release from doctors' care and reentry into normal society, "I told my wife that for the first time I felt like a man again, tasting things, picking things up in my fingers, eating lunch with my wife and my two daughters."

Boumediene, 43, had been in a French military clinic under physical and psychological observation since his arrival in Paris on May 15 aboard a U.S. government aircraft that carried him - in shackles - away from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In what he describes as an ugly mistake by U.S. authorities, Boumediene, an Algerian citizen, had spent seven years there as terrorism suspect No. 10005. Later he became the plaintiff in a landmark Supreme Court case, Boumediene v. Bush, that in June 2008 gave Guantanamo detainees the right to seek judicial review of their imprisonment.

Boumediene, in a lengthy interview in a Paris suburb, said he joined the case to represent the scores of prisoners held at Guantanamo charged with being "enemy combatants" and having no power to challenge the accusation in court.

Later ordered released by a U.S. district judge in Washington, he represents something new: dozens of prisoners whom the U.S. government has decided to release but cannot, because no other country will take them in and most Americans do not want them on U.S. soil.

At the request of the Obama administration, France agreed to take in Boumediene but appears reluctant to accept any more detainees. Britain accepted one released Guantanamo prisoner in February and has promised to take in a second. In all, human rights activists say, Washington is looking for homes for about 60 such prisoners, swept up without trial in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and now judged fit for release.

Boumediene's version of events is impossible to verify independently. But he described himself as collateral damage in those sweeps, an aid worker in Bosnia wrenched from his life and, he said, interrogated endlessly about something about which he had no knowledge.

Boumediene, who at the time was an aid worker with the Red Crescent, was arrested in Bosnia in October 2001 along with five other Algerians accused of plotting to blow up the U.S. and British embassies in Sarajevo, charges that were later withdrawn. In January 2002, the six were turned over to U.S. officials and flown to Guantanamo, despite rulings by several Bosnian courts that there was no reason to deport them.

U.S. interest was high because one of the six Algerians, Belkacem Bensayah, was accused by U.S. investigators of being an al-Qaeda operative in Bosnia. Moreover, Bosnian police had discovered a piece of paper in Bensayah's home with a handwritten number and a name that corresponded to that of a senior al-Qaeda leader in Afghanistan.

Boumediene, in the interview, said he did not know Bensayah well but that, as a fellow Algerian, Bensayah had come to Boumediene's Red Crescent office seeking help for his family. In addition, he said, Bensayah's wife sought assistance after her husband's arrest, and Boumediene provided money for a lawyer. Boumediene said U.S. officials concluded that those connections linked him to al-Qaeda's activities in Bosnia.

In addition, Boumediene said, a stint in Pakistan in the early 1990s aroused the suspicions of U.S. investigators and may have landed his name on a watch list shared by Algerian security services with their U.S. counterparts.

Boumediene said his time in Pakistan had nothing to do with that country's madrassas, or religious schools where future fighters were being educated in an extreme version of Islam. Instead, he said, he was a proctor at a Kuwaiti-financed school for Afghan orphans.

But during his stay, he had his passport renewed at the Algerian Embassy in Islamabad. Because many Islamist Arab fighters were gathered in Pakistan, including Algerians, the passport renewal in Islamabad marked him for Algerian security services as a possible extremist.

As a result, when he traveled to Algeria in December 1999 to visit family, Boumediene recalled, he was stopped at the airport and told he was on a list of people wanted for questioning. Boumediene denied any connection to Algeria's Islamist extremists, but Algerian investigators were intrigued by his time in Pakistan and confiscated his passport.

As he sought to get the suspicions lifted and retrieve his passport, Boumediene said, he was told by an official in the prosecutor's office that he could avoid further trouble with Algerian authorities if he registered for an amnesty being offered to Islamist activists by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Reluctantly, and still denying any association with the Algerian extremists, he accepted the government's amnesty and got his passport back.

That solved his problem in Algeria. But a document listing him as a beneficiary of the amnesty was found in his home after his arrest in Bosnia and, Boumediene speculated, served to reinforce U.S. suspicions about his ties to al-Qaeda.

Boumediene said he was interrogated more than 120 times during his stay in Guantanamo's Camp Delta, mostly about Arabs and other foreign Muslims in Bosnia. "At first I thought they were honest, and when I explained they would see I was innocent and would release me," he recalled. "But after the first two years or so, I realized they were not straight. So I stopped cooperating."

During one 16-day period in February 2003, he said, the interrogations went on day and night, sometimes with tactics such as lifting him roughly from the chair where he was strapped, so the shackles dug into his flesh. The interrogators, some dressed in military uniforms and others in civilian clothes, were assisted by Arabic interpreters who seemed mostly to be from Egypt and Lebanon, he recalled, and later included a few Moroccans and Iraqis.

"They were dogs," Boumediene said of the foreign interpreters, in his only show of anger. "They were dogs. They often started doing the interrogations themselves. They would tell the interrogators they could get more information."

On Christmas in 2006, Boumediene recalled, he started a hunger strike in an effort to get someone to listen to his pleas of innocence. Twice a day, about 6 a.m. and 1 p.m., he was strapped to an iron chair and force-fed through a tube in his nose that reached into his stomach.

Until a meal with his lawyers as he was about to leave Guantanamo, Boumediene said, he broke his fast only twice, once when he learned of President Obama's election and again when the judge ordered his release.

"I have no idea why this happened to me," he said. "I'm a Muslim like any other. I pray and I observe Ramadan. But I don't have any hatred against anybody."

Grateful to be settling in France with government help, his first goal is to draw close to his family again, Boumediene said. But down the road, he added, he wants to sue the U.S. government or its senior officials to hold them accountable.

"I don't know whether it will be possible," he said. "But even if it takes 100 years, I am determined to bring suit."