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Eight Years of Guantanamo Torture Not Enough?: Abdul Aziz Naji Arbitrarily Denied Bail in Algeria on Baseless Allegations

An Algerian judge this week arbitrarily denied bail to a former Guantánamo detainee, despite his meeting all of the bail requirements set out in the country’s penal procedures code. Abdul Aziz Naji was cleared by the US after being detained at Guantánamo for eight years, and then forcibly returned to Algeria – where, as he had feared, he was convicted and imprisoned on unsubstantiated charges.

Although Mr Naji’s recent bail request was made on the basis that he met all of the requirements set out in the Algerian Penal Procedures Code, the judge rejected it on the grounds that he had not proven that he is unable to withstand imprisonment because of his medical condition. This refusal has no legal basis, as the Algerian law governing bail makes no mention of release on medical grounds.

In January this year, Mr Naji was sentenced to three years on unsubstantiated allegations of membership in an extremist group overseas. The charges were derived from the now-discredited accusations that the US administration made against him in 2002.

During his trial, the prosecutor presented no evidence of Mr. Naji’s guilt—rather the judge simply questioned him and produced a guilty verdict. His lawyer, Hassiba Boumerdassi, filed an appeal of his sentence and requested that he be released on bail pending retrial. She will resubmit the bail request arguing that the rejection had no basis in the law.    Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on May 3, 2012 in Campaigns, News Items

 

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Urgent appeal: Former Guantanamo detainee, Abdel Aziz Nadji, kidnapped and sentenced in Algeria

Abdel Aziz Nadji was held in Guantanamo for 8 years without charge or trial. He was sent back to Algeria against his will where he tried to rebuild his life. However, he was suddenly rearrested and jailed.

Abdel Aziz Nadji is a 37 years old man born in Batna, Algeria. In 2001, he travelled to Makkah and accomplished the Muslim pilgrimage. He then worked briefly for a humanitarian organisation providing emergency assistance for the needy inhabitants of Kashmir. During his charitable work, Abdel Aziz Nadji stepped over a landmine which caused him to lose his lower right leg. He was transported to Lahore where he was treated for several months. He was then directed towards an Algerian man, Mustafa Hamlili who had been living in Peshawar with his wife for 15 years. Abdel Aziz was told he may be able to marry there. In May 2002, he was arrested with his host during a raid led by the Pakistani police. He was not given any reason to justify his arrest and was told that he would be released. Nevertheless, he was handed over to the American forces and taken to Guantanamo.

In Guantanamo, Abdel Aziz was subjected to torture and held without any charge or trial for 8 years.

Abdel Aziz then became eligible for release. However, he fought against his return to Algeria where he rightfully feared being tortured or killed. Nevertheless, he lost his case before the Supreme Court and he was forcefully deported to Algeria by the Obama administration which deemed sufficient the Algerian “diplomatic assurances” to treat him humanely. On 18 July 2010, he was handed over to the Algerian authorities despite his request for political asylum being pendant before Swiss courts. Upon his arrival, he was taken into secret detention. He eventually reappeared and was set free. However, unspecified charges were laid against him by the Algerian authorities.

He returned to his family and tried start a new life. However, he was deprived of any identity documents and suffered from depression, anxiety and other symptoms consistent with post traumatic stress disorder due to his treatment in American custody. Moreover, he was in need of medical attention due to his amputation after his prosthetic leg was damaged by American soldiers who beat him up in Bagram and Guantanamo. Abdel Aziz was also under “judicial supervision” and had to sign a register every week at the local police station.

On 16 January 2012, the police suddenly arrested him and took him directly to the court. On the same day, he was sentenced to three years of prison, accused of belonging to a terrorist group operating overseas. He was immediately transferred to El Harrash prison in Algiers, known for human rights abuses.

His lawyer has eight days to appeal the decision.

While Egypt has put an end to the unfair re- incarceration of Adel Al-Gazzar, while Tunisian former Guantanamo detainees have been able to return safely to their homeland and while the new authorities have promised to do more in order to secure the release of the five Tunisians still held at Guantanamo Bay, Algeria is jailing a man who has already spent 8 years in Guantanamo Bay without charge or trial. It does so on obscure accusations and apparently expeditiously.

Abdel Aziz has appealed the decision and refuses any food.

CagePrisoners urges all its supporters to contact the Algerian Ministry of Justice to demand Abdel Aziz’s immediate release.

Message to the Algerian Minister of Justice

Monsieur le Ministre,

A la suite d’informations reçues de l’organisation britanique de défense des droits de l’Homme CagePrisoners, je vous exprime ma vive préoccupation concernant l’affaire d’Abdel Aziz Naji arrété le 16 janvier 2012 et condamné le jour même à trois ans de prison, accusé d’appartenir à un groupe terroriste opérant à l’étranger. Il apparaît que cette condamnation n’a pas été prononcée dans des conditions compatibles avec celle d’un procès équitable.

Alors que l’Egypte a mis fin à la détention injuste d’Adel Al-Gazzar, alors que des anciens détenus tunisiens de Guantanmo ont pu regagner leur pays d’origine en toute sécurité et alors que les nouvelles autorités tunisiennes se sont engagées à tout faire pour obtenir la libération de ses cinq citoyens toujours détenus sur l’île cubaine, l’Algérie incarcère un homme qui a déjà passé 8 ans à Guantanamo sans procès, et ce sur la base de vagues accusations et, semble t-il, de manière expéditive.

Je vous demande donc la libération immédiate d’Abdel Aziz Naji.

Je vous prie de recevoir l’expression de mes salutations distinguées.

Ministry of Justice (Algeria)

Address: Ministère de la Justice 8, Place Bir Hakem, El-Biar, Alger

 

Email:                   contact@mjustice.dz

Phone:                  021.92.41.83

Fax:                       021.92.17.01

 

From CagePrisoners

 
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Posted by on February 1, 2012 in Campaigns

 

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Djamel Beghal: Date Unknown (My Story)

In summary, it is the same again and again …

If you are Muslim, more or less young, bearded, attending a mosque, who has childhood friends, neighbours or co workers sharing the same convictions, if you communicate between each other – like everyone else – by phone … This, then, becomes an ideal “terrorist” cell, a network of “sleepers” to perfection, which, tomorrow might need to make one of JT and the press’s headlines. This cell can then be yet another addition to the hunt bag of French terrorist hunters. These hunters, who in reality are the antiterrorist judges, specialise in this field. In the legal domain, they are specialists only in the morbid arts of burying the living in the graveyards of solitary confinement and legal torture, as well as in the arts of making false records, resemblances of cases and fantastical accusations.

As for the sentences, they distribute the maximum possible on those who are culturally educated and well instructed to make them seem like the heads. They make the rest look like a bunch of blunt knives and give them just under the maximum sentence, which holds the same torments of destroying their familial, professional and social lives.

Recent revelations in Wikileaks, relayed by the daily Le Monde, 1 December 2010, written by Piotr Smolar, whose courage I salute (it is rare to see such evidence from a journalist when it comes to judicial French injustice committed with impunity against, what is meant by term, Islamists), finally gave credible evidence and a voice to the somewhat muffled cries that I have been consistently pushing from the abyssal areas of `total isolation and legal torture’ of the French prisons for the past ten years!  Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on October 13, 2011 in Letters from Djamel Beghal, Risala

 

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Action Alert: Write to the French authorities about the case of Djamel Beghal


Please take action for Djamel Beghal who was convicted due to statements taken under the duress of torture. Cageprisoners wants you to help push the French government into establishing an inquiry which will re-examine his case.

Take Action

Write or send an email (scroll down and enter first your name and first name, then your email address, then the object: (affaire Beghal), and then copy and paste the following message) to the French Minister of justice to request:

  • The opening of an investigation against the judges Bruguiere and Ricard
  • The nullification and revision of the judgement that condemned Djamel Beghal and his co-accused as well as the immediate nullification of any measures that would still affect them.

If you are a French citizen or a French resident, please contact your MP to request him to raise the issue in the Parliament and press for a government inquiry. In order to send a message to the French Minister of Justice, please use the following link and the sample letter below:  Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on October 13, 2011 in Campaigns

 

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Muhammad Larbi: January 1, 2010 (Regarding the ‘Titanic’ Terrorism case in Italy)

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, Most Merciful

All Praise is due to Allah and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah and his family, companions and followers, as to what follows:

Peace and blessings be upon you

My name is Muhammad Larbi (’Abdul Kareem), charged with terrorism together with Khaled Serai and Amine Bouhrama. I write this letter because I know that brothers and sisters want to know what is going on with the muslims in this country ( Italy) I am writing to you my story not to complain but to expose these gangsters who boast about justice and human rights.

I am an Algerian who was living in the city of Brescia. I was arrested on the 14th of November 2005, at 2pm at the city centre and accused of International terrorism. The arrest warrant ran to 268 pages, present to the judge in the morning of the 14th, and by 11am he had ordered our arrest. How could he read such a voluminous document in two hours? I have never before or since seen such speed in decision making and execution!

When I was taken to the interrogation centre, I saw that I was not the only one who had been arrested but also two other brothers, Khaled Serai and Amine Bouhrama. Khaled was arrested in Brescia in a café whilst sitting with friends. Amine was in Napoli, asleep in his home. After approximately three hours they presented me with the arrest warrant, 268 pages long. Initially I did not understand why I was arrested when I arrived at the Immigration centre, at the beginning I didn’t understand why I was arrested and why they took me to the barracks but when I started reading the warrant I realised the disaster I fell in.

I started reading al-Qaeda, the London bombings, Madrid bombings, Sharm el-Sheikh bombings, and other related matters. And inside the room there were two officers, I said to them: ‘You forgot to add something else to this warrant‘, one of them said: ‘what did we forget?’ I said: ‘You forgot the Tsunami, we did that as well.’

At the time of our arrest there was a group of officers heading to search our homes, and after they searched us and our homes and found nothing, they started collecting everything that came their way in the house, pictures, paper, notes, anything that they can twist and turn into an accusation, as they did not find any materials to substantiate what they accused of us. No weapons, no money, no forged documents, and no chemicals.
And despite everything that happened, they did not stop nor were they embarrassed. Instead, they intiated a huge multi-media campaign of character assassination and falsehood againt us. TV, Radio, News, both international and national. We were in headlines all over the world, and in Italy on the frontpage. The headlines?, ‘Warning: Terrorism knocks the doors of Italy!!!’ ‘Three Algerians ready to hit Italy with a ship the size of the Titanic loaded with explosives’.  Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on January 1, 2010 in Letters from Muhammad Larbi, Risala

 

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Amar Makhlulif: March 15, 2008 (Statement of Facts)

I, Hider Hanani – also known as Amar Makhlulif – was born in Algeria to a modest family in 1966. I had a simple upbringing in which my family instilled into me values of love, tolerance and patience. When war broke out in Algeria in 1991-1992, something tragic happened to our beautiful country. For the first time in my life, I experienced sadness, pain and despair. I did not know then that I would experience those feelings again and again, but in a land far away from Algeria.

Like any decent human being, I dreamed of a good world, a world full of peace, freedom and justice for all people. As the war consumed Algeria, many of us were persecuted by the Algerian Secret Service. Many were tortured and killed, whilst others were detained in the camps of the Algerian desert, where daytime temperatures exceed 45 degrees [centigrade]. Our dreams and hopes were vanished.

So in 1992, I fled Algeria to come to Britain.

Why Britain? Since my youth, I had learned that Britain was a democratic country, a defender of human rights, in which the rule of law, freedom and justice are upheld. Britain for me was the land in which no man was wronged. Nelson Mandela said that, ‘the values of a nation are measured by the manner in which it treats its prisoners’. I had heard that Britain was a civilised land that treated prisoners with dignity so it must be a safe place for refugees. How wrong I was to be.

In 1993, I arrived in Britain and applied for political asylum. I lived and worked in Britain for the next few years. I liked Britain; it became my new home. On 28th February 2001, I was arrested by 40 terrorist police, along with a group of other people. We were all charged with ridiculous terrorism offences and sent to Belmarsh prison. But two months later, on 16th April 2001, all these charges against us were dropped due to a lack of evidence. I was exonerated by British prosecuting authorities – or at least I thought I was.

Everyone was released except me. I was remanded at Belmarsh prison under immigration laws. I applied for bail, but the Home Office kept on delaying the bail hearing, citing various excuses. At last, I was granted bail on the 3rd July 2001. On the afternoon of 3rd July 2001, Belmarsh officers told me to pack my bags and said, ‘Get ready, you are going home.’ I quickly packed my things and eagerly went to the prison inspection to be processed for release. I was relieved and happy that the nightmare of the last four months had come to an end.

Instead, the prison officers opened the gate, and I stepped outside into the big, wide world – the free world. At last, I would now feel the air of freedom on my face and fresh grass under my feet. But it wasn’t to be. I had underestimated the callousness of the British government. As soon as I put my right foot outside the gate, two police officers arrested me under an extradition warrant from the USA. Apparently, a man arrested in the USA back in 1999 had all of a sudden given my name to an investigator as a terrorist leader.

I was taken straight back to my cell. My name and photo appeared all over the world’s media. They said that one of the world’s most dangerous terrorist leaders had been “captured”. I lost all of my extradition hearing as they were duly rubber-stamped by the British courts, especially after 9/11 happened. I remained in prison awaiting extradition.

It later transpired that the ‘witness’ who testified against me had been threatened with 130 years in a US prison if he did not [testify]. Eventually he withdrew his testimony against me and the US extradition request for me fell through in August 2005. I was then immediately re-arrested and detained under Immigration Law, pending deportation to Algeria. I remain in prison to this day, as a political prisoner, held without charge for over seven years.

I have spent over seven – seven precious years of my life, in a prison. These years will never come back. I have been treated in prison in ways that even Algerian authorities would be ashamed to consider. In Algeria, they kill you physically [along] with verbal insults. In Britain, they kill you psychologically, with a smile.

I am only seeking the same rights as [afforded to] the worst rapists, paedophiles and offenders in British prisons: and that is the right to a fair, open trial. If I have done something wrong, I should be put on trial and punished. If not, then I should be released and allowed to get on with my life. Is this too much to ask?

A. Makhlulif

 
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Posted by on March 15, 2008 in Letters from Amar Makhlulif, Risala

 

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Mustapha Labsi: February 1, 2005 (My Story)

I am an Algerian man, and my name is Mustapha. I am imprisoned in the British Guantánamo prison, Belmarsh, a high security prison. My prison number is GF6440. My story is close to fiction and I believe that a large number of people, in particular Britons, who will learn about my case, would doubt its credibility because it is strange. Too many people think that this country is ruled by law, but I would not be surprised if they are suspicious, as I would personally have doubted that this story has ever happened if I heard it before I experienced it myself, as I was hearing that this is a law-abiding and democratic country. I have met a number of inmates in the prison and they were extremely surprised when they heard what has happened to me. But the fact remains a fact, and it is up to the people to believe my story or reject it, but they have the right to know.

My case started when I was arrested on 13 January 2001, at six o’clock in the morning, when the door was smashed down and the British police stormed my home. My three-months pregnant wife and myself were there at the time; my wife is Slovakian. I was taken to Paddington [Green] police station and interrogated for one week. They had no evidence to accuse me with but they said, following the investigation, they found that I have links to a suspected terrorists group arrested in Germany and the evidence is my mobile number was found in one of the detainees’ notebook.

I was detained in Belmarsh for three months in connection to this allegation, then the case was dropped and I was told that I was being released. When I was about to approach the gate of Belmarsh prison, I was told that I was being rearrested for an extradition order to France. They said that you have no problems in this country. I was in Belmarsh prison for three years until all the prisoners in France have been released with whom I was allegedly connected. Yes, they have been released in France and I remained in Belmarsh without trial now for a continuing four years.

The courts were going to give me bail in 2003 because it was clear that I had already served all the time I would have to serve in France if I was extradited there. But the day before I would have been granted bail, I was told that the Home Secretary was making me subject to the 2001 Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act, which detains foreign nationals without trial.

My problems were transformed, when all the alleged allegations were dropped and I still continued to be detained without trial in Belmarsh, British Guantánamo, during which the British government practiced an appalling and the most horrific methods to destroy me and my family, and indeed they succeeded.

My wife, who is not from this country, was shocked mentally and psychologically, which made her mad, and she wanders in the streets without care or protection.

She was first shocked when I was arrested and they brutally entered our home, which terrified her. The second shock, when all the prisoners in connection with the case were released after three months, I telephoned her and told her that I am on my way home, but I was arrested again at the gate of Belmarsh, as I stated above, so her pain got worse and she started to suffer from a severe hallucination.

During the period of pregnancy and while I was in prison, they practiced on my powerless wife what a genuine human being cannot do.

She went to the hospital to have an ultrasound for her unborn baby, but they refused and said your husband is a terrorist. Who told them that? The answer is the security service of this country. My wife insisted to have the ultrasound just to make sure, but she was told that the ultrasound shows that your unborn baby is dead and that is it, then the powerless and poor woman burst into tears and screamed.

She told me what had happened when I contacted her, and I asked her to use the rest of the money she has and go to another hospital to check again. She went to another hospital and she was told the unborn baby is alive and what she was told in the previous hospital was just bad games of the security service.

After our son was born, the security service continued their plan against my wife. She was threatened to be evicted from her home to the street and indeed she was evicted and was without food or money until six o’clock in the evening and by Allah’s will she was spotted by one of the Muslims, as she was wearing a Muslim costume and he saw her condition, he took her to his home. But the police did not stop and approached this good Muslim and threatened him with prosecution if he continued to support her, so this man accepted that and asked my wife to leave his home. She contacted one of her friends and then went to her home where she stayed for three months.

Because of my problems and this case, which is not clear, I drove my wife to the state of complete madness and she neglected our son. She started behaving strangely and then the police intervened and took the child from her. I have been trying for a year and a half to find out what is the fate of my son as he is being moved from one family to another.

My wife became a human ghost, as she is walking in the streets without conscience and sense. Her mother came here two months ago to take her to Slovakia but she could not contact her.

Her mother, my son’s grandmother, applied to have the custody of our son and maybe then his mother would go with him. She won the case last summer and the court decided that she could take our son to Slovakia, but my wife is still in the same situation in this country.

My mother, who is Algerian national, applied for a visa more than five times, to look after the child or take him back home, but every time her application was refused.

Anyway, I thank Almighty Allah, as I suffered a number of psychological deteriorations, but I always get help from Allah not to terminate and take my life. Due to the stress and pressure I developed stomach ulcer and also anal bleed when I use the toilet and normally lose about one and half litres of blood every week.

I wonder, what this country wants from me? What is the wrong thing I did in this country or abroad to deserve this treatment?

Let me be honest with you, Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Home Secretary hate Muslims so much as there is no other explanation to their actions.

They violated all the laws and destroyed the human principles with their lies; such as, the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction lie.

Their game is clear and will destroy the people because of their ignorance and also the control of media concepts of provocation, which grew fear of Muslims in the hearts of their people. Every day they claim that they arrested new terror suspects but it turns up to be nothing.

There is currently no case connected to terrorism in courts despite the fact that more that one thousand Muslims have been arrested and detained. They lock up people and release others and if they do not like someone they would detain him under 2001 terrorism law without evidence, public trial or lawyers.

I thought that the people of this country understand the decisions of politicians and their practices but the fact is that what I saw is different, because the people are just concerned about their lives and they have nothing to do with general and political decisions.

What I could say now!

  • My wife is mentally ill
  • I do not know where my son will be
  • I am in prison without charge, trial and do not know my fate
  • A patient hoping to recover in inadequate circumstances
I did not dream of anything except that I wanted to live with a wife and children happily in a quiet home away from any troubles.

Finally, I say as every Muslim would say when injustice is imposed on him and he cannot find a supporter from earth: “We are created by God and we will return to Him.”

 

 
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Posted by on February 1, 2005 in Letters from Mustapha Labsi, Risala

 

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