Ahmed Belbacha: I traveled to Afghanistan in a “humanitarian mission” and I found myself in Guantanamo!

The Criminal Court of Algiers has discharged for the second time, the returnee from “Guantanamo” prison namely, Ahmed Belbacha, and this acquittal ruling comes after the General Prosecutor required a sentence of 15 years of detention against him.

The former Guantanamo inmate was acquitted after lodging a cassation appeal with the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Detained in the US military base for suspicions of terrorism, he was not extradited to Algeria until March 2014  but he voiced refusal to return to his country of origin for fear of being “ill-treated”.

Accused of “belonging to a terrorist group activating abroad”, Ahmed Belbacha was finally acquitted for lack of evidence. The prosecution had demanded a 15-year prison sentence for the accused. The Algerian justice had already sentenced Ahmed Belbacha in absentia in 2009 to 20 years of imprisonment. A new trial had been organized following his extradition in Algeria in early 2014.

Arrested in Pakistan in December 2001, Ahmed Belbacha was detained at Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba for almost 12 years because he was suspected of having traveled to an Al-Qaeda affiliated-training camp in Afghanistan. But on his release by the US authorities in 2007, Ahmed Belbacha had asked the US court to prohibit his transfer to Algeria, for fear of “being ill-treated by the government”, he pleaded.

Ahmed Belbacha said that he was on a “humanitarian mission in Afghanistan before finding himself in Guantanamo prison, arguing that he is innocent of all the charges leveled against him.

His extradition finally took place in March 2014 and resulted in a new trial in Algeria. Ahmed Belbacha was not the only Algerian prisoner of the American military base to refuse to be extradited to his country of origin. In December 2013, Belkacem Bensayah and Djamel Ameziane refused to be repatriated for fear of “being mistreated”.

The transfer back home of Ahmed Belbacha has reduced to 2 the number of Algerian detainees in the military prison of Guantanamo.