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Dublin: 12 °C Monday 20 May, 2013

Italian court releases former Guantanamo detainee

The Tunisian had spent eight years in the Cuban facility before Italy accepted him into the country two years ago.

AN ITALIAN appeals court has overturned the terrorism conviction of a Tunisian man who had spent nearly eight years in the US military prison in Guantanamo, Cuba.

Mohamed Ben Riadh Nasri, who had been convicted of terrorism association by a lower Italian court, was one of three Tunisian prisoners from Guantanamo that Italy accepted more than two years ago.

Nasri’s lawyer, Roberto Novellino, said the appeals court in Milan on Monday threw out the guilty verdict and its six-year sentence, meaning his client is a free man. The court’s reasoning will be released in 30 days.

A second Tunisian man who had served time at Guantanamo was released for time served and returned home, while the third remains in an Italian prison.

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Comments (4 Comments)

  • They really seem to incentivise appeals in the Italian judicial system. A certain American girl springs to mind…

    Reply
  • They weren’t all captured in or near a war zone surely?? I’m not advocating any terrorist activity, just seems to me to be strange they can hold someone for years on end with no charge and no trial, bit like some of the places they invade to ‘liberate’!!!!

    Reply
  • Can somebody tell me how the US gets away with holding these people for long long periods with a trial. Surely, according to their judicial system, everybody, regardless of their supposed crime, is entitled to a fair trial within a reasonable timeframe????

    Reply
    • Because they were captured in or near a war zone, they are held under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which offers few of the protections a civilian judicial system.

      Because they aren’t in the armed forces of a hostile state, the government doesn’t acknowledge Geneva Convention protections either.

      Reply

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