The Algerian Six are six Muslim men who had been imprisoned without charges at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba since January 2002; five of them were ordered released after a long disputed habeas hearing before Judge Leon in the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C.; three were then flown to Bosnia to reunite in 'protective custody' with their families while three remained at Guantanamo, one, Belkacem, as a suspected terrorist and the other two, including Lakhmar Boumediene, as effectively stateless because Bosnia did not want them. The men were all born in Algeria, but five of the six were naturalized Bosnian citizens and the sixth had been a permanent resident of Bosnia prior to his detention. Five of the men worked for humanitarian organizations in Bosnia before they were sent to Guantanamo. After falling under U.S. suspicion of planning an attack on the U.S. embassy in Bosnia, the six men were turned over to the U.S. in January 2002 in Sarajevo by the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the express demand of the U.S. Though they have remained imprisoned at Guantanamo since that date, the U.S. has yet to charge any of the men with any crimes.
The six men were formally arrested by Bosnian authorities in October 2001. They were held in Bosnian custody during a three-month investigation into U.S. claims that the men had plotted an attack on the U.S. and British Embassies. This investigation produced no evidence to justify their continued detention. The six men were then ordered released by the Bosnian Supreme Court, with recommendation of the prosecutor. At the moment of their release from Bosnian imprisonment, they were illegally handed over to American officials who flew them to detention and interrogation in the U.S. naval base at Guanatanamo Bay, Cuba. The conduct of the Bosnian authorities was formally condemned as illegal by the Human Rights Chamber of Bosnia Herzegovina, the relevant Bosnian court at the time. [1] Amnesty International recalled in 2002 that the Bosnian Supreme Court explicitly opposed itself to this transfer to US authorities [1]
In late 2004, the six men were sent before Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRTs) of three military officers. The CSRTs concluded that the six men were properly classified as "enemy combatants" based on classified evidence, which justified their continued detention at Guantanamo. However, transcripts of CSRT hearings for four of the six men record the Bosnians reporting to their tribunal officers that interrogators did not believe that there had ever been any substance to the U.S. allegations that they had planned to bomb the U.S. embassy. Furthermore, the CSRTs applied a definition of "enemy combatant" that was so broad the government admitted it could include a "little old lady in Switzerland," who donated money to a chartiy in Afghanistan that then, without her knowledge, funded al Qaeda.[2] (See Transcript of Motion to Dismiss before United States District Court Judge Joyce Hens Green at pp. 25–26 (December 1, 2004) Rasul v. Bush, Docket No. 02-02999; see also press coverage, for example, Neil A. Lewis, Fate of Guantanamo Detainees Is debated in Federal Court, NY Times (Dec. 2, 2004), available for download at [2]).
According to Wolfgang Petritsch, UN diplomat and former High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina, the US threatened the UN to withdraw their men from the mission if he protested against the transfer of the Six.[3] The transfer was done by US general John Sylvester, then commandant of the SFOR United Nations forces.[3]
Three British citizens who had been detained in Guantanamo, the "Tipton Three", wrote a 131 page account of their time Guantanamo.[4] They wrote about the Bosnians:
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The six men are:
| Bensayah Belkacem |
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| Hadj Boudella[5] |
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| Lakhdar Boumediene |
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| Sabir Mahfouz Lahmar[7] |
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| Mustafa Ait Idr [8][9] | |
| Mohammed Nechle[10] |
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The U.S. Government alleged that six Algerian men living in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzagovina were associated with Abu Zubaydah and a plan to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo.[11][12] The United States chargé d'affaires reportedly told the prime minister of Bosnia that the U.S. would withdraw its personnel and cut diplomatic relations if Bosnia did not arrest and investigate the Algerian Six.[12] The Algerian Six were arrested by Bosnian authorities within the week, were investigated fully, and tried for the alleged plot to bomb the U.S. and British Embassies in Sarajevo.[12] All six men were released by the Supreme Court of Bosnia for lack of evidence against them.[12] The Human Rights Chamber of the Bosnian Judiciary explicitly ruled that the government must take all steps to prevent their forcible deportation, as well.[12] However, upon leaving the courthouse they were apprehended by U.S. officials and taken to Guantanamo Bay.[11] Wolfgang Petritsch, the international community’s top official in Bosnia at the time remembers being told by Bosnian leaders that the U.S. applied a lot of pressure on Bosnia to be allowed to take the Algerian Six to Guantanamo.[12] In fact, Wolfgang states that the U.S. conveyed to him they would remove their support for an international mission he was leading if Bosnia didn’t comply.[12]
Since the capture of the six men by the United States, the Bosnian government has argued for their release from Guantanamo Bay. In November 2008, Judge Richard J. Leon of the Federal District Court in Washington DC ruled all of the men except Bensayah Belkacem were being held illegally.[13]
Melissa Hoffer, Stephen Oleskey,[14] Rob Kirsch,[15] Mark C. Fleming,[16] Lynne Campbell Soutter,[17] Jeffrey Gleason, Lauren Brunswick, and Allyson Portney.,[18] each from the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, traveled to Guantanamo to volunteer their services to the Bosnians.[19]
Hoffer delivered a speech at the 17th Concours International de Plaidoiries.[20] She said that during her interviews the Bosnians described horrific treatment.
The Washington Post published a profile of the six Bosnians.[21] The profile reported that the allegations the men faced during their Administrative Review Board hearings dropped the accusation that the men had been plotting to bomb the US embassy in Sarajevo.
The article reports the speculation that the men remain in detention because the Bush administration is unwilling to undergo the embarrassment of admitting it held the men for four years and never had any real evidence against them.
The article reports some of the new justifications Guantanamo intelligence analysts offered for continuing to detain the men following the abandonment of the claim the men plotted to bomb the US embassy, including:
The article reports a confusing story of Bush administration negotiators trying to secure face-saving deals with Bosnia and Algeria. According to the article:
The article points out that even though the Bush administration has declined to discuss any real evidence they may have against the men that Lieutenant Commander J.D. Gordon stated:
On 21 October 2008 US District Court Judge Richard J. Leon ordered the release of the 5 Algerians held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the continued detention of a sixth, Belkacem Bensayah. The Court ruled: "To allow enemy combatancy to rest on so thin a reed would be inconsistent with this court's obligation; the court must and will grant their petitions and order their release. This is a unique case. Few if any others will be factually like it. Nobody should be lulled into a false sense that all of the ... cases will look like this one."[22][23][24][25]
Three of the six men were released and flown to Bosnia late in the fall of 2008, leaving three behind in Guantanamo, two rejected by Bosnia and fearing for their lives in Algeria, one, Belkacar, still detained as a terrorist. On March 3, 2009, El Khabar reported that the Bush administration forced the men to sign undertakings that they would not sue the US government for their kidnapping, before they would be released.[26]
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