Brahim Yadel (born March 17, 1971) is a citizen of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

who was held in

extrajudicial detention Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial. A number of jurisdictions claim that it is done for security reasons. Many countries claim to use administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Guantanamo Bay detainment camp The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...

s, in

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. His Guantanamo

Internment Serial Number An Internment Serial Number (ISN) is an identification number assigned to captives who come under control of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) during armed conflicts. History On March 3, 2006, in compliance with a court order from D ...

was 371. Born in

Aubervilliers Aubervilliers () is a commune in the Seine-Saint-Denis department, Île-de-France region, northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Albertivillariens'' or ''Albertivillariennes''. Geography Localisati ...

, France, the

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philippin ...

has reported his date of birth. Although originally convicted in France, his trial was overturned and he was released in February 2009. On February 17, 2010, the

Court of Cassation A court of cassation is a high-instance court that exists in some judicial systems. Courts of cassation do not re-examine the facts of a case, they only interpret the relevant law. In this they are appellate courts of the highest instance. In th ...

, the highest court in France, ordered a re-trial of Brahim Yadel and four other men.

Allegations of ties to terrorism

A ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine article, published on March 16, 2003, reported that Brahim Yadel was recruited by Karim Bourti. According to the article, Karim Bourti was: "...a self-described Paris-based recruiter for international jihad." Brahim Yadel, and three other French Guantanamo captives, were repatriated to French custody on July 28, 2004. Brahim Yadel was repatriated to France one day prior to the institution of the

Combatant Status Review Tribunal The Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as "enemy combatants". The CSRTs were esta ...

s in July 2004. French authorities held Brahim Yadel,

Nizar Sassi Nizar Sassi (born August 1, 1979) is a citizen of France who was detained by the United States in their Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba.Mourad Benchellali Mourad Benchellali is a French citizen, who was captured by Pakistanis forces and detained in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 161. The elder Benchellali is reported to have directed ...

and Imad Kanouni on charges of "associating with criminals engaged in a terrorist enterprise." French authorities suspected Brahim Yadel helped organize jihadist training camps in the

forest of Fontainebleau The forest of Fontainebleau (french: Forêt de Fontainebleau, or ''Forêt de Bière'', meaning "forest of heather") is a mixed deciduous forest lying southeast of Paris, France. It is located primarily in the arrondissement of Fontainebleau i ...

Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment

On April 25, 2011, whistleblower organization

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international Nonprofit organization, non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous Source (journalism), sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activism, Internet acti ...

published formerly secret assessments drafted by

Joint Task Force Guantanamo Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) is a U.S. military joint task force based at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba on the southeastern end of the base. JTF-GTMO falls under US Southern Command. Since January 2002 the command has ...

analysts. His

Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment A joint or articulation (or articular surface) is the connection made between bones, ossicles, or other hard structures in the body which link an animal's skeletal system into a functional whole.Saladin, Ken. Anatomy & Physiology. 7th ed. McGraw- ...

was two pages long, and was drafted on January 31, 2004. It was signed by camp commandant

Geoffrey D. Miller Geoffrey D. Miller (born c. 1949) is a retired United States Army major general who commanded the US detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Iraq. Detention facilities in Iraq under his command included Abu Ghraib prison, Camp Cropp ...

. He recommended Bradel be detained under DoD control.

French trial

Brahim Yadel and five other returned Guantanamo detainees were to stand trial in France in 2006. While all the other men free on conditional release, preceding the trial, Brahim Yadel was kept in detention. He had violated the terms of his conditional release.

Trial delayed

The trial was delayed to allow an investigation into the conduct of French intelligence agents who interrogated the men in Guantanamo. France had insisted French agents had not interrogated the men in Guantanamo, but leaked memos showed this was untrue. Judge Jean-Claude Kross apologized, saying: "I am sorry, we have to start again from scratch". The Prosecutor has recommended lenient, one-year prison sentences, to take into account their "abnormal detention" in Guantanamo.

Conviction and appeal

Brahim Yadel, and four other French citizens, were convicted in 2007 of "criminal association with a terrorist enterprise." They had their convictions overturned on appeal on February 24, 2009. Their convictions were overturned because they were based on interrogations conducted in Guantanamo, and the interrogations were conducted by French security officials, not law enforcement officials.

McClatchy interview

On June 15, 2008, the

McClatchy News Service The McClatchy Company, commonly referred to as simply McClatchy, is an American publishing company incorporated under Delaware's General Corporation Law and based in Sacramento, California. It operates 29 daily newspapers in fourteen states and ...

published articles based on interviews with 66 former Guantanamo captives. McClatchy reporters interviewed Brahim Yadel in France. According to his McClatchy interviewer, Brahim Yadel was disgusted by

al Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...

's attacks on

September 11, 2001 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

, and tried to flee Afghanistan immediately after he heard of them, and never engaged in hostilities against US forces. However, he acknowledged receiving military training in Afghanistan, and "even took advanced al Qaida courses in electronics that would have led to bomb making." He told his McClatchy interviewer that he saw the USS Cole as a legitimate military target, but felt his non-western companions in Afghanistan had no idea how appalling the attack on the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

was:

"I knew bin Laden was against the Americans," he said. "In the logic of war, attacking a warship made sense. It wasn't my battle, but I could understand it. Unlike the Afghans, I'd grown up in Western culture, which means American culture. They didn't understand the enormity of what had happened. I did. It was horrible. I didn't believe in this war."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yadel, Brahaim 1971 births Living people French extrajudicial prisoners of the United States French Muslims French people of Algerian descent Guantanamo detainees known to have been released