TERRORISM: ALGERIA, ALGERIAN GUANTANAMO PRISONER SENTENCED
(ANSAmed) - ALGIERS, NOVEMBER 30 - An Algerian held in Guantanamo, from where he refuses to be extradited to his home country, has been sentenced in his absence by the Algiers Court to 20 years in prison for "belonging to a terrorist group abroad". Reports were from the APS press agency, which noted that Ahmed Belbacha had been arrested in Pakistan and transferred to Guantanamo in 2002. Despite the fact that US authorities had decided to release him in 2007, the prisoner refused to be extradited to Algeria and "preferred to stay in Guantanamo", continued the source within providing any further details. According to some observers, the 37-year-old Belbacha refused to go back to his home country out of the fear that he would be tortured. After leaving Algeria in the 1990s, he is thought to have gone to Afghanistan before being arrested in Pakistan in December 2001. (ANSAmed).
(ANSAmed) - ALGIERS, NOVEMBER 30 - An Algerian held in Guantanamo, from where he refuses to be extradited to his home country, has been sentenced in his absence by the Algiers Court to 20 years in prison for "belonging to a terrorist group abroad". Reports were from the APS press agency, which noted that Ahmed Belbacha had been arrested in Pakistan and transferred to Guantanamo in 2002. Despite the fact that US authorities had decided to release him in 2007, the prisoner refused to be extradited to Algeria and "preferred to stay in Guantanamo", continued the source within providing any further details. According to some observers, the 37-year-old Belbacha refused to go back to his home country out of the fear that he would be tortured. After leaving Algeria in the 1990s, he is thought to have gone to Afghanistan before being arrested in Pakistan in December 2001. (ANSAmed).
