Mosa Zi Zemmori is a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

citizen 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 detainee ID number was 270. The Department of Defense reports that his date of birth is July 3, 1978, in

Wilrijk Wilrijk (; former, original spelling: ''Wilrijck'') is a district of the municipality and city of Antwerp in the Belgian province of Antwerp. Wilrijk had been a separate municipality before January 1, 1983; the enlarged municipality of Antwerp was ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. He was repatriated to Belgium on April 25, 2005. When he was arrested he was characterized as a Moroccan, or a Belgian, from Morocco, although the DoD says he was born in Belgium.

Life

Press reports routinely assert Zemmori was detained while in

Kandahar Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a List of cities in Afghanistan, city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population ...

, in the south of Afghanistan. But the official DoD allegations against Zemmori acknowledge he was detained in Pakistan, after turning himself in to Pakistani officials. Those documents say he was ''transferred'' to a detention facility in Kandahar.

Administrative Review Board

Detainees whose

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 ...

labeled them "enemy combatants" were scheduled for annual

Administrative Review Board The Administrative Review Board is a United States military body that conducts an annual review of the detainees held by the United States in Camp Delta in the United States Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The purpose of the Board is to revi ...

hearings. These hearings were designed to assess the threat a detainee might pose if released or transferred, and whether there were other factors that warranted his continued detention.

Repatriation

Zemmori was repatriated to Belgium on April 25, 2005 along with Mesut Sen. ''Reuters'' reports he was held, for a time, by Belgian authorities.

July 2015 arrest

Police in

reported that in July 2015, five men were arrested accused of conspiracy in an armed robbery that was intended to raise funds to support recruitment of fighters in Syria, the five included Zemmori and a second former Guantanamo prisoner. The arrests occurred on July 22, 2015, but were not reported in the English-speaking press until July 24. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' and ''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

'' both described Zemmori as a ''"37-year-old Belgian of Moroccan origin"''. ''

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

'' described him as "a Moroccan national born in Antwerp.". In May 2009, Zemmori and the other former Guantanamo prisoner were both cleared of the criminal conspiracy charges.

Open letter to President Biden

On January 29, 2021 the ''

New York Review of Books New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

'' published an open letter from Zemmori, and six other individuals who were formerly held in Guantanamo, to newly inaugurated

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Biden, appealing to him to close the detention camp.

References