The
United States Department of Defense acknowledges holding approximately one dozen Algerian detainees in Guantanamo.
[
]
However an Algerian government press release, on August 21, 2016, said that they had been tracking 28 Algerian captives.
[ Both US and Algerian governments agreed just two captives remained in US custody.
A total of 778 detainees have been held in the ]Guantanamo Bay detention 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 since the camps opened on January 11, 2002.[
The camp population peaked in early 2004 at approximately 660 before numerous detainees were released. Only nineteen new captives, all "]high value detainees
Extrajudicial prisoners of the United States, in the context of the early twenty-first century War on Terrorism, refers to foreign nationals the United States detains outside of the legal process required within United States legal jurisdiction. ...
," have been transferred there since the United States Supreme Court's ruling in ''Rasul v. Bush
''Rasul v. Bush'', 542 U.S. 466 (2004), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court in which the Court held that foreign nationals held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp could petition federal courts for writs of ''habeas corpus ...
'' (2004), which said that detainees had the '' habeas corpus'' right to challenge their detention before an impartial tribunal.
On March 3, 2008 an Algerian delegation visited Guantanamo.[
] At that time DOD reported seventeen Algerian nationals remaining in Guantanamo.
Release negotiations
On June 23, 2008 the Algerian newspaper '' El Khabar'' quoted Farouk Ksentini
Farooq (also transliterated as Farouk, Faruqi, Farook, Faruk, Faroeq, Faruq, or Farouq, Farooqi, Faruque or Farooqui; ar, فاروق, Fārūq) is a common Arabic given and family name. ''Al-Fārūq'' literally means "the one who distinguishes b ...
, the head of Algeria's Advisory Human Rights Commission, about negotiations over the Guantanamo detainees' repatriation.[
] According to ''Al Khabar,'' Ksentini reported that the US had insisted on unacceptable conditions unacceptable to Algeria for transfer of the detainees to their country of origin. The article stated that Sandra Hodgkinson
Sandra Hodgkinson is an American lawyer and officer in the United States Navy Reserve. She currently serves as senior vice president for strategic planning and chief of staff at DRS Technologies and Leonardo North America, headquartered in Arlingt ...
, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs The Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs (DASD-DA) is a political appointment created by United States President George W. Bush. The appointee has responsibility for captives apprehended during the "war on terror". ''The New Yo ...
, had not been telling "the entire truth".
The Department of Defense announced on July 2, 2008 that it had repatriated two Algerians.[
] The Department withheld the Algerians' identities without explanation.
On July 3, 2008 Carol Rosenberg
Carol Rosenberg is a senior journalist at ''The New York Times.'' Long a military-affairs reporter at the ''Miami Herald'', from January 2002 into 2019 she reported on the operation of the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camps, at its nav ...
of the ''Miami Herald
The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a List of communities in Miami-Dade County, Florida, city in western Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County and the M ...
'' reported that the two repatriated Algerians were Mustafa Hamlily and Abdul Raham Hourari
Abdul (also transliterated as Abdal, Abdel, Abdil, Abdol, Abdool, or Abdoul; ar, عبد ال, ) is the most frequent transliteration of the combination of the Arabic word '' Abd'' (, meaning "Servant") and the definite prefix '' al / el'' (, me ...
.Nabil Hadjarab
The United States Department of Defense acknowledges holding approximately one dozen Algerian detainees in Guantanamo.
However an Algerian government press release, on August 21, 2016, said that they had been tracking 28 Algerian captives. Both US ...
and Mutij Sayyab. This would bring the total number of remaining detainees at Guantanamo to 164.
Algerian detainees in Guantanamo
Algerian Six
Guantanamo also contains six citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina who were born in Algeria, who are known as the
"Algerian Six
The Algerian Six were six Algerian men, who gained citizenship of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War, five of whom will continue to hold a dual Algerian and Bosnian citizenship, and who were imprisoned without charges at Guantanamo Bay ...
".
Repatriation
The Department of Defense has acknowledged repatriating seven Algerians:
Abdul Raham Houari,
Mohammed Abd Al Al Qadir
The United States Department of Defense acknowledges holding approximately one dozen Algerian detainees in Guantanamo.
However an Algerian government press release, on August 21, 2016, said that they had been tracking 28 Algerian captives. Both US ...
,
Sameur Abdenour,
Mustafa Ahmed Hamlily,
Fethi Boucetta
Fethi Boucetta (aka ''Abu Mohammed'') is a citizen of Algeria, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.
His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 718.
The Department of Defense repor ...
,
Mammar Ameur, and
Soufian Abar Huwari.
The Department of Defense didn't reveal the men's names.
On April 3, 2009, at the G20 Summit in Strausburg, French President Nicolai Sarkozy
Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012.
Born in Paris, he is of Hungarian, Greek Jewish, and French origin. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Sei ...
indicated France would offer asylum to a former Guantanamo detainee.
References
External links
Two Algerian Torture Victims Are Freed from Guantánamo
Andy Worthington 25.1.2010
*
UN experts warn against sending detainees at torture-riskObama and US Courts Repatriate Algerian from Guantánamo Against His Will; May Be Complicit in Torture
Andy Worthington 21.7.2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Algerian Detainees In Guantanamo
*
Lists of Guantanamo Bay detainees by nationality
Algeria–United States relations