Slimane Hadj Abderrahmane

Slimane Hadj Abderrahmane
Born August 5, 1973(1973-08-05)
Roskilde, Denmark
Detained at Guantanamo
ISN 323
Charge(s) No charge
Occupation Repatriated

Slimane Hadj Abderrahmane (born August 5, 1973) is a citizen of Denmark who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[1] His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 323. The US Department of Defense reports he was born on August 5, 1973, in Roskilde, Denmark. His mother is Danish and his father is Algerian.[2]

Abderrahmane is reported to have been inspired to travel to Afghanistan in the late 1990s in a mosque in Grimhøjvej, founded by an Algerian refugee named Athme Meheri.[3] Danish journalist Morten Skjoldager described Meheri's mosque as a "radical mosque" in his book "Truslen indefra" ("the threat from within").

Abderrahmane was captured, in December 2001, in Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border.[4] He was transferred to Guantanamo on February 10, 2002.[5][6] He was repatriated to Denmark on February 24, 2004.[7]

Abderrahmane's explanation for how he came to be captured was that he had traveled there to enroll in an Afghan military training camp to undergoing training so he could go fight with Muslim rebels in Chechnya.[4]

Abderrahmane was held in Guantanamo Bay for over two years.[8][9] According to an article in US News & World Report he was released in spite of reservations from US security officials because the Danes had threatened to withdraw their troops if he was not released.

Abderrahmane was the subject of a 2004 book entitled "Den naive terrorist".[9]

After his release Abderrahmane announced plans to travel to fight in Chechnya.[4] He said he regarded the document he signed promising not to take part in terrorist activity as "toilet paper". Danish security officials talked him out of his trip.

He has said that Denmark's role in the Occupation of Iraq meant that he thought Danish leaders were legitimate military targets.[4]

On 10 October 2007 in the Copenhagen suburb of Greve, Abderrahmane was sentenced to 10 months in jail for the theft of two passports and three creditcards which he used to withdraw more than 110,000 Danish kroner (approximately US$ 20,000).[10][11] The items were stolen from the mail sorting office where Abderrahmane was working under a new Danish name. Police only recovered a small proportion of the stolen money and it is unknown where or how the remainder of the money was spent. During the trial, Abderrahmane refused to testify. He also refused to speak to or co-operate with his assigned lawyer.

References

  1. ^ OARDEC (May 15, 2006). "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf. Retrieved 2007-09-29. 
  2. ^ "Danish detainee 'to join rebels'". BBC News. 2004-09-30. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3704176.stm. Retrieved 2010-05-23. 
  3. ^ "Morten Skjoldager". Dansk Journalistforbund. 2009. http://nydj.inforce.dk/sw96565.asp. Retrieved 2010-04-07. 
  4. ^ a b c d "Danish detainee 'to join rebels'". BBC,. September 30, 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3704176.stm. Retrieved 2007-01-05. 
  5. ^ JTF-GTMO (2007-03-16). "Measurements of Heights and Weights of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba". Department of Defense. http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/measurements/. Retrieved 2008-12-22.  mirror
  6. ^ "Measurements of Heights and Weights of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (ordered and consolidated version)". Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas, from DoD data. Archived from the original on 2009-12-21. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fhumanrights.ucdavis.edu%2Fresources%2Flibrary%2Fdocuments-and-reports%2Fgtmo_heightsweights.pdf&date=2009-12-21. 
  7. ^ OARDEC (2008-10-09). "Consolidated chronological listing of GTMO detainees released, transferred or deceased". Department of Defense. http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/09-F-0031_doc1.pdf. Retrieved 2008-12-28. 
  8. ^ Mark Mazzetti (8 March 2004). "Getting A Free Pass: Anger over a deal to release a `terrorist'". US News & World Report. http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/040308/8gitmo.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-05. 
  9. ^ a b Jakob Holm (2004-06-09). "BØGER: Interessant, men problematisk interviewbog med den frigivne dansker fra Guatánamo-basen [BOOKS: Interesting, but problematic interview with the Dane freed from Guatánamo base]" (in Danish). Kristeligt Dagblad. http://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/artikel/111066:Kultur--Den-naive-terrorist?page=1. Retrieved 2010-04-07. "It is described as the big journalistic scoop that the two Politiken journalists Hans Davidsen-Nielsen and Matias Seidelin have tricked the now freed Dane from Guantanamo detention center in a northern Zealand holiday for five days, there to hear his whole story about religious awakening and 747 days in U.S. custody." 
  10. ^ "Former Danish Guantanamo prisoner jailed for theft of passports, debit cards". BBC News. 2007-10-30. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=NewsLibrary&p_multi=BBAB&d_place=BBAB&p_theme=newslibrary2&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=11CA18F9D9CC2FE0&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved 2010-04-06. 
  11. ^ Hans Rustad (2007-08-27). "Eks-Guantanamo var postbud and og tyv [Ex-Guantanamo was a postman and a thief]" (in Danish). Document.no. http://www.document.no/2007/08/eksguantanamo_var_postbud_og_t.html. Retrieved 2010-04-07. "Abderrahmane was starting a new life with a new average name, in a secret address, and a job as postman. Now he is arrested for stealing two passports and three credit cards that he has taken out 100,000 dollars on." 

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