French Guantanamo suspects back home

By Mallory Langsdon

Four Frenchmen detained in the U.S. military camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for over two years have arrived back in France after Washington handed them over to French authorities.

The men, who had been held without charge, were captured during the U.S. led-war in Afghanistan on suspicion of fighting with the former Taliban regime.

Arriving on Tuesday by French army aircraft at the Evreux military base in northern France, they were taken away in a coach flanked by police cars and outriders.

President Jacques Chirac pledged the men, who were among a dozen Europeans still being held in Guantanamo under conditions much criticised by rights groups, would face French justice.

"Long and intensive discussions have resulted in the return to France of four nationals detained in Guantanamo," Chirac told reporters during a visit to Madagascar’s capital Antananarivo.

The four "will of course be handed over to (French) justice authorities," he said. Talks continued for the release of two or three remaining French nationals in Guantanamo, he added, noting that the nationality of one was not certain.

French judicial sources said later the men were placed under detention upon arrival in Paris by the DST domestic intelligence service after being given medical checks.

Relations are frosty between Paris and Washington, which fell out over the U.S.-led war in Iraq, remain divided in global trade talks and have clashed over whether Turkey should become a member of the European Union.

A foreign ministry spokeswoman told a briefing in Paris the men’s release "would have no impact" on Franco-U.S. ties, which she stressed were also marked by continued cooperation in major areas such as the fight against terrorism.

ATTACK PLANS

The ministry did not say which suspects were returned. Andre Gerin, mayor of the Lyon suburb of Venissieux, said two of the detained were Mourad Benchellali and Nizar Sassi from his area.

"It’s a victory of the law," Gerin said. "We are getting out of a nightmare but we are worried about (the suspects’) psychological, moral and physical state."

Benchellali is the son of a Muslim prayer leader from Lyon. The father is under official investigation by anti-terrorist magistrates along with his wife, another son and three others.

They are probing alleged plans to attack Russian interests in France, including Moscow’s embassy in Paris, as a reprisal for Russian actions in the rebel Muslim province of Chechnya.

Aymen Sassi said he felt relieved about his brother Nizar’s return: "When we heard the news, my mother and my father were overcome with joy."

The Frenchmen were among about 600 suspected al Qaeda and Taliban members still held at Guantanamo after being captured during the Afghanistan war, which began weeks after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Four Britons and two Belgians remain at the camp, but neither British nor Belgian officials expected the handover to augur the imminent release of their nationals.

"The United States have expressed their reluctance to return the four British detainees because of security concerns," said a British Foreign Office spokesman, adding that talks were continuing nonetheless with Washington.

The Belgian Foreign Ministry also said discussions continued but saw no connection between the Belgian and French cases.

Rights groups have called Guantanamo a "legal black hole" where the United States holds prisoners indefinitely and with no access to lawyers. Rights activists also have accused the United States of using interrogation methods that amount to torture.

Washington has already handed over some prisoners to Britain and Denmark. EVREUX, France (Reuters)

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