Lakhdar Boumediene, Guantanamo Detainee, Released By U.S.

PARIS — A Guantanamo Bay prisoner who was at the center of a Supreme Court battle over inmates' rights arrived Friday in France, which agreed to take in the Algerian in a gesture to the Obama administration.

After seven years in the U.S. camp, 43-year-old Lakhdar Boumediene was released Friday and flew to France.

The French government has arranged for medical care if needed, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said. Boumediene has been on a hunger strike since 2006 and was force-fed at the prison camp, his lawyers say.

Boumediene, suspected in a bomb plot against the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo, was arrested along with five other Algerians in 2001 in Bosnia.

The U.S. Department of Justice said Boumediene was released after an interagency review, and thanked France for agreeing to take him in.

"The assistance of our international allies is critical to the closure of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay," said Matthew Olsen, executive director of the Guantanamo Review Task Force. "We commend the leadership (France and the European Union) have demonstrated on this important issue."

President Barack Obama has promised to close the prison at Guantanamo and has urged allies to take some of the 60 inmates who could face abuse, imprisonment or death if returned to their homelands. France promised to take one Guantanamo prisoner when Obama attended a NATO summit in April, and said last week it would accept Boumediene.

Boumediene requested to come to France because he has family here, Chevallier said. French officials would not provide details about his immediate whereabouts in France after his arrival, citing security reasons.

"He was deemed innocent of all charges relating to the participation in eventual terrorist activities by judicial decisions in several countries, including the United States," Chevallier said. "Now that he is free, we hope that Lakhdar Boumediene can resume a normal life."

Stephen Oleskey, a Boston-based attorney for Boumediene, told AP that he could not immediately comment on Friday's release.

In June 2008, the Supreme Court ruled in a case called Boumediene v. Bush that foreign Guantanamo Bay detainees have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention in civilian courts.

On a 5-4 split, the majority said the U.S. government was violating the rights of prisoners there and that the system the Bush administration put in place to classify suspects as enemy combatants and review those decisions is inadequate.

Boumediene was released as Obama announced that he is reviving Bush-era military tribunals for a small number of Guantanamo detainees, with several new legal protections for terror suspects. The system is expected to try fewer than 20 of the 241 detainees now being held at the detention center.

Human rights activists hailed Boumediene's arrival in France.

"We welcome (France's) decision to take him in and urge France to give all the support that Mr. Boumediene needs in terms of protection and care," said Jean-Marie Fardeau, director of the Paris office of Human Rights Watch, who lobbied the French government to take in Guantanamo inmates.

"We hope that this is a first inmate taken in in France, and that others will follow, and that other countries will follow," he said.

Others were hostile to the release.

"Boumediene has admitted to associating with al-Qaida," Kirk S. Lippold, former commander of the USS Cole and a fellow at Military Families United, said in a statement. "Instead of detaining Boumediene and holding him accountable for his actions, the Obama Administration has released him in France on the U.S. taxpayers' dime."

Boumediene was the second detainee transferred to a third-party country under the Obama administration, after Ethiopian-born Binyam Mohamed was sent to Britain in February.

So far, France has only pledged to take in one non-French Guantanamo inmate, Boumediene. Several EU countries have refused, in part for security reasons.

Seven French citizens who were at Guantanamo were sent home in 2004 and 2005.

___

Associated Press writer Nedra Pickler in Washington contributed to this report.

Comments

[LTCKal]

03:59 PM on 06/09/2009

Missing from this puzzle are the circumstances of their arrest. Where were they? If they were in China, then China needs to put on the diplomatic screws to North Korea (which they can). We can also discuss this incident with China, especially if North Korean kidnappers are permitted to cross the border and abduct citizens under Chinese protection. Yet, I can't imagine someone "wandering" into North Korea by accident, there are too many markers on the borders of such nations (barbed wire, guardtowers, guards with machine guns, signs, mines, etc.) to make such a mistake. If they were, indeed, somehow inside North Korea on their own volition, then they took a chance and they knew the consequences. They played right into the North Koreans' hands.

[oregonbird]

05:28 PM on 05/16/2009

Are his medical needs going to be financially addressed by our government? Will he and his family be compensated for his unlawful detainment and the violence he has endured? Or has the United States just removed a visible symbol of the past administration's unconstitutional actions from the stage?

President Obama, put some attorneys and their clerks to work. Charge the Justice Department with either doing its job or having personnel replaced. Stop blocking public discourse with rhetoric about "looking forward". We need to know that the people who ignored our Constitution and laws will never influence or be part of our government again. Charge and prosecute American war criminals. All of them. And yes, we understand that there will be political fall out. There were complicit Democrats, and there are allegiances and friendships between the guilty and those who must allow the guilty to be held to account for their actions.

Are you going to be a great president, or the apologist for the worst president's administration?

[HappyRabbit]

06:21 PM on 05/16/2009

Very well said. Thanks.

[Happyexpat]

06:06 AM on 05/18/2009

I am a passionate supporter of President Obama and I agree with your very well stated comment. The number of crises and profound problems facing Obama and his administration are unprecedented. It's fine to compare Obama's moment in history to that of FDR, but FDR wasn't faced with, among other things, an increasingly unstable Pakistan building up their nuclear arsenal, nor with a hawkish Israeli government chomping at the bit to obliterate Iran. Thus he will have my continued support. But our past must be dealt with and the heads will have to fall where they may, be they Democrat or Republican.

[finishcurve]

04:15 PM on 05/16/2009

60 of the 2000 photos Obama doesn't want released:

http://www.smh.com.au/ftimages/2006/02/15/1139890768716.html

[Harmony1812]

08:06 PM on 05/16/2009

Thanks for the link. Very sad.

[tippydog11]

08:07 AM on 05/16/2009

Did they use terrorist as an excuse for their own deceit to start an unjust war, where 100 of thousands of innocent men woman children were kill and thousands mamed for life ? It sickens me.

[newyorkid]

12:58 AM on 05/16/2009

Why Bush isn't going to prison?

[oregonbird]

05:29 PM on 05/16/2009

Me not know, Cheetah.

[thefitz]

10:02 PM on 05/15/2009

This thorough article...well researched and documented is NOT for the faint of heart. But, is a MUST read for all those who NEED their to be prosecution of the Bush/Cheney administration for the heinous crimes committed to/on human beings.

http://www.alternet.org/rights/140022/little_known_military_thug_squad_still_brutalizing_prisoners_at_gitmo_under_obama/?page=1

[finishcurve]

09:28 AM on 05/16/2009

It is as good as the 2000 photos we haven't seen yet.

[philoffal]

07:57 PM on 05/15/2009

Little Known Military Thug Squad Still Brutalizing Prisoners at Gitmo Under Obama

http://www.alternet.org/story/140022

[Bernique]

07:17 PM on 05/15/2009

"Several EU countries have refused, in part for security reasons". I think the real reason is that accepting "enemy combatants" would legitimize the previous administration's actions, and label countries that accept them as "collaborators", when the history books are written.

[TimnySlagle]

08:00 PM on 05/15/2009

... or maybe they don't want to let terrorists into their country.

[iRob08]

09:20 PM on 05/15/2009

It's not their responsibility to take in former enemy combatants from our GWOT. And besides:

"He was deemed innocent of all charges relating to the participation in eventual terrorist activities by judicial decisions in several countries, including the United States," Chevallier said. "Now that he is free, we hope that Lakhdar Boumediene can resume a normal life."

[magic3400]

09:23 PM on 05/15/2009

I feel ya, but the sad fact is not all of these guys were terrorist, but may become one not that we jailed them and denied them any rights for years.

What a mess...

Bush/Cheney have so much to answer for!

[Ergon]

06:30 PM on 05/15/2009

25 out of 29 prisoners whose cases went into Federal Court were released due to lack of evidence. That's why we're reinstating military commissions. And all 'confessions' elicited due to torture should be dismissed.

[1dogs2]

04:59 PM on 05/16/2009

Link?

[finishcurve]

05:41 PM on 05/15/2009

Sue.
The people who run America, understand that...and learn from it.