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New trial for 'Guantanamo six'
03/12/2007 17:26 - (SA)
Paris - The retrial on terrorism charges of six former Guantanamo inmates opened on Monday in Paris after a year's delay to allow judges to find out more about a French secret service mission to the US base.
Captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and held for up to three years at the Guantanamo detention centre in Cuba, the defendants were charged upon their return to France in 2004 and 2005 with "criminal conspiracy in relation to a terrorist enterprise".
During their initial 10-day trial last year, some admitted to staying in Afghan camps linked to Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, but all denied fighting US forces or planning attacks in Europe.
Their defence lawyers have accused France of colluding with US authorities over the Guantanamo detentions by sending agents to question them at the base outside of any legal framework.
In a surprise move, Judge Jean-Claude Kross refused to hand down a verdict in September 2006, saying he wanted to know more about the intelligence mission - whose very existence the French authorities initially denied.
He requested access to confidential foreign ministry and intelligence files relating to the mission, granted him by the French defence secrets commission last December.
Mourad Benchellali, 26, Nizar Sassi, 27, Khaled Ben Mustapha, 35, Redouane Khalid, 39, Brahim Yadel, 37, and Imad Achab Kanouni, 30, were captured in 2001 during the US-led war to oust the Taliban in Afghanistan and handed over to US forces.
Last year the French state attorney called for all but Kanouni to be found guilty, but asked for lenient, one-year prison sentences, saying their "abnormal detention" in Guantanamo should be taken into account.
The defence argued that any information derived from their questioning in Guantanamo should be classed as inadmissible evidence.
Though none are currently in detention, all six spent periods in pre-trial custody and could therefore expect to avoid jail.
The trial is set to run until December 12.
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