Six Frenchmen who returned from a contentious US prison in
Guantanamo Bay are set to stand trial in Paris Monday for their
alleged terror-related crimes, local media reported on Sunday.
Prosecutors charged five of them with taking training in
al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan from 2000 to 2001, and the
remaining one with receiving fundamentalist religious training in
Afghanistan.
The suspects, who were imprisoned in the Guantanamo detention
center after being captured in the US-led military action in
Afghanistan in 2001, returned to France in July 2004 and March 2005
separately.
If found guilty, the defendants could face sentences of up to 10
years in prison.
The six, aged between 24 and 38, said that they were abused
psychologically and physically in the Guantanamo prison.
The Guantanamo prison, where some 440 people are being jailed,
has drawn international attention as most inmates there have been
held without trials for years.
US President George W. Bush has vowed to have the prisoners
tried and close the facility. However, The US Supreme Court ruled
Thursday against Bush's plan for war crime tribunals, saying it is
not consistent with both US laws and the Geneva Conventions.
(Xinhua News Agency July 3, 2006)
