US court orders release of five Algerian Guantanamo detainees

A US judge Thursday ordered to free five of six Algerians detained at Gunatanamao Bay in an unprecedented decision since the opening of the camp in 2002.

• “The court finds that the government has failed to show by burden of proof” that the five had planned to go to Afghanistan to take up arms against US forces, judge Richard Leon said.
• He estimates that the five Algerians, arrested in 2001 were illegally detained while the government had provided enough evidence to continue holding the sixth detainee Belkacem Bensayah. He is accused of involvement in trips to Afghanistan to join terrorist groups and carry out attacks on US interests.
• The Algerians’ lawyers said the prisoners should not be considered enemy combatants because they were not arrested on the battlefield in Afghanistan.
• Washington attorney Annemarie Brennan who followed the trial for Amnesty International said government prosecutors failed to show that the other defendants had assisted in the subversion campaign.
• “Although the information was likely sufficient for intelligence purposes, it was not legally sufficient to hold them as enemy combatants within the US legal system,” she said.
• The hearing was held after the Supreme Court on June 12 ruled that Guantanamo detainees had the right to know under what charges they are held and what the evidence was against them.
• The six Algerians were handed over to the US in January 2002 on suspicion of having links with terrorist organizations. All of them had worked for Islamic charity branches in Bosnia headquartered in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
• They were jailed in Bosnia pending for investigation after US authorities had claimed they planned an attack on the US and UK embassies, causing their temporary closure.
• The Bosnian Supreme Court ordered their release because the three-month investigation found no evidence against them.
• Few hours later, the six were handed over to the US Army base in Bosnia and transferred to Guantanamo.
• The Amnesty International said their release decision “strikes another blow to the Bush administration’s deeply flawed policies of indefinite detention, ill-treatment and injustice.”
• Nearly 255 detainees remain at Guantanamao which was established to hold terror-suspects arrested after the September 11 attacks. Most of them have been detained for years without official charges.
• US new President Barack Obama taking office on January 20th has promised to close the prison camp to move all trials to the US mainland.