A Gitmo miscellany

Is Clive Stafford-Smith correct? We have seen Gitmo jihad recidivists before. Should we just take it on his word?

"Guantánamo detainees arrested in Britain," from The Guardian:

Three British residents held at the US Guantánamo Bay detention facility in Cuba without charge for more than four years have been detained after arriving back in the UK tonight.

Libyan-born Omar Deghayes and Algerian Abdennour Samuer were arrested under the Terrorism Act shortly before landing at Luton airport around 7pm and taken to a central London police station for questioning.

The third man, Jordanian Jamil el-Banna, was detained but not arrested and taken to a police station in Bedfordshire.

[...]

Earlier, the three men's lawyer, Clive Stafford-Smith, described their arrival in the UK after being released from the detention facility as "a wonderful day".

"We fully expect that the British government, after they have questioned them, will let them go home to be with their families for the Muslim festival of Eid, which is today and tomorrow," said Stafford-Smith.

He revealed that the three men had agreed to "voluntary security arrangements", which they are not allowed to disclose, required by the UK authorities. But they fall well short of the control orders imposed on some terror suspects in the UK, he added.

Stafford-Smith rejected concerns about any potential "national security risk" the men might pose.

"We have had 10 of our clients come back to Britain and the Americans said on each occasion they were dangerous people and on each occasion our clients have caused no trouble," he said.

"Guantanamo man held under Spanish warrant," by Christopher Hope in the Telegraph:

One of the British residents released from Guantanamo Bay yesterday could face extradition from the UK to Spain after being detained under a European Arrest Warrant.

Jamil el-Banna, 45, is being questioned at a Bedfordshire police station after landing back in Britain last night.

His arrest warrant, which alleges offences related to terrorism, was issued by the Spanish authorities.

[...]

Last night, the former detainees’ lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, said that the three men had agreed to unspecified "voluntary security arrangements", requested by the Government.

He denied that these restrictions were the same as the controversial control orders, which have been used to place terrorist suspects under virtual house arrest.

Mr Stafford Smith insisted that the men posed no threat to the public in Britain.

"You have nothing to worry about from our clients," he said. "We have had 10 of our clients come back to Britain and the Americans said on each occasion they were dangerous people and on each occasion our clients have caused no trouble."

"French Court Convicts Ex-Guantanamo Inmates," from Associated Press:

PARIS — A court convicted five former inmates of Guantanamo on terrorism-related charges yesterday but did not send any of them back to prison in France.

A sixth man was acquitted, and his lawyer said he would try to win reparations from Washington for his time at the American prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Also yesterday, three longtime British residents were released from Guantanamo and flown to Britain. London police arrested two on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts, while the third was detained for questioning.

[...]

Seven French citizens were captured in or near Afghanistan by American forces in late 2001. All were held for at least two years at Guantanamo and then handed over to French authorities in 2004 and 2005. One of them was found to have no ties to terrorism and was freed immediately after his return to France.

The others spent up to 17 months in prison in France. But by the time the verdict was announced yesterday, all of them were out of prison pending rulings in their cases. The five men were convicted of "criminal association with a terrorist enterprise," a broad charge frequently used in France. All the men insisted during the trial that they were innocent.

The court followed the recommendations of Prosecutor Sonya Djemni-Wagner, who said December 11 that she could not condone the men's "abnormal detention" at Guantanamo.

"None of them should have been held on that base, in defiance of international law, and have had to go through what they went through," she said.

However, she said they should be convicted because they used phony identity papers and visas to knowingly "integrate into terrorist structures" in Afghanistan.

Five of the men — Brahim Yadel, Khaled ben Mustafa, Nizar Sassi, Mourad Benchellali, and Ridouane Khalid — said during the trial that they had spent time in military training camps in Afghanistan but claimed they had never put their combat skills to use.

The sixth man, Imad Kanouni, said he went to Afghanistan for spiritual reasons. He was acquitted, as the prosecutor had recommended. Lawyer Felix de Belloy said he would try to seek reparations from the American government on behalf of Mr. Kanouni.

Spiritual reasons.

Posted by Robert at December 20, 2007 7:06 AM
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