Nizar Sassi (born August 1, 1979) is a citizen of France who was detained by the United States in their

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base Guantanamo Bay Naval Base ( es, Base Naval de la Bahía de Guantánamo), officially known as Naval Station Guantanamo Bay or NSGB, (also called GTMO, pronounced Gitmo as jargon by members of the U.S. military) is a United States military bas ...

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 ...

.Guantanamo man finally freed
, '' News24'', January 11, 2004 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 ...

was 325.list of prisoners (.pdf)
''

US Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national sec ...

'', May 15, 2006 Sassi was transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2002. He was repatriated to France on July 27, 2004. Sassis remained in French custody until January 9, 2006. Although originally convicted in France, his trial was overturned and he was released in February 2009.''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''
Terror convictions overturned in France
February 24, 2009 Sassi worked for the

Vénissieux Vénissieux (; Arpitan: or in the Lyonnais dialect) is a commune in the Metropolis of Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in eastern France. Geography Vénissieux is located on the southern outskirts of Lyon. Toponymy The name ''Vénis ...

Council.Mr. Aymen Sassi, Brother of Nizar Sassi
''

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

'', March 9, 2004 Vénissieux is a suburb of

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

, France. According to his brother, Aymen, Nizar traveled to Pakistan to learn formal

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

.Relatives of detainees at Guantanamo tell of fear, anger: Families are in the US to put a face to what they say is the unlawful detention of suspected terrorists in Cuba
''

Taipei Times The ''Taipei Times'' is the only printed daily English-language newspaper in Taiwan, and the third established there. Online competitors include the state-owned '' Focus Taiwan'' and '' Taiwan News''; '' The China Post'' was formerly a compet ...

'', March 9, 2004 Security authorities claim Sassi travelled to

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

in 2001 at the direction of, an alleged al-Qaeda recruiter.Nizar Sassi: A French Detainee Waiting to Return Home
, ''

Medill School of Journalism The Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications is a constituent school of Northwestern University that offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. It frequently ranks as the top school of journalism in the Unite ...

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 Sassi are alleged to have traveled to Afghanistan on forged passports.Remand for French Guantanamo four
''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', August 1, 2004 Nizar Sassi and four other men stood trial on terrorism charges upon their return to France. The five men's convictions were overturned in February 2009, because they had improperly been interviewed by France's intelligence officials, who were not authorized to act in a law enforcement role. 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 ...

, a higher court, ordered a re-trial of the five men.

Mourad Benchellali's 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 an ...

published articles based on interviews with 66 former Guantanamo captives. McClatchy reporters interviewed Mourad Benchellali in France. In his interview Mourad described how he and Nizar were tricked into traveling to Afghanistan by his older brother Menad Benchellali. He described how they found Afghanistan nothing like what they expected. He described not speaking

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...

Dari Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī ...

, but they met some

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

ns who spoke French, who suggested they attend a religious camp. During his interview Mourad described what it was like to attend the training camp: a lot of praying; lectures on jihad; physical training; some weapons training, which did not include any weapons. He said he and Nizar realized the only way to leave the camp early was to fall ill, so they pretended to fall ill, only to be sent to the camp infirmary. But then he said Nizar really did fall ill, eventually losing 45 pounds. Mourad described reconnecting with Nizar after his time at the camp was over, and asking the Algerians for help leaving Afghanistan. They told them they would have to wait a few weeks while arrangements were made, but then the USA attacked, and it was not possible to leave.

French trial

Nizar Sassi, 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.

Sued American officials

Sassi and

sued several senior American officials, over the torture they were subjected to there. Retired

General A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...

Geoffrey Miller, a former commandant of the Guantanamo camp, as well as being the architect of torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib was called upon to testify. Their lawyer,

William Bourdon William Bourdon (born 1956) is a French lawyer of the Paris Bar Association who practices criminal law, particularly specializing in white-collar crime, communications law and human rights. He particularly specializes in defending the victims o ...

, characterized Miller's non-appearance as ''"a dual act of contempt against the French judiciary; he both refused to appear and to provide any explanation about his role and that of the US administration."'' William Haynes, formerly the Pentagon's Chief Legal Counsel, was called to testify in October 2016.

Bibliography

* ''Ich war gefangen in Guantanamo – Ein Ex-Häftling erzählt Heyne'', München, 2006, * Nizar Sassi: ''Prigioniero 325, Delta Camp.'' Einaudi, Torino, 2006. * Nizar Sassi: ''Guantanamo, Prisionero 325, Campo Delta.'' Edaf S.A. 07/2006 * Nizar Sassi: ''Fange 325 : dokumentar fra Guantánamo-leiren'' Oslo, Aschehoug, 2006.

References

External links

McClatchy News Service - video
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sassi, Nizar 1979 births French extrajudicial prisoners of the United States French Muslims French people of Tunisian descent Living people Guantanamo detainees known to have been released fr:Nizar Sassi