Bosnia: The Algerian Six prepare their cases

Officials in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo have launched an inquiry into the actions of several former high-ranking officials involved in the handing over of six Algerian men - all naturalized Bosnian citizens - to US authorities, who transferred them to Guantanamo.

The six were handed over to the US in January 2002 on suspicion of having links with terrorist organizations, though they have not been charged officially. In early October, the six will be given a chance to present their case in a US federal court, thanks to a recent US Supreme Court decision.

For the first time since their extradition from Bosnia to the US, the six will have the opportunity to address the Court, most likely via video link and each will be given one day to present their case. At the same time, US authorities will have to provide concrete evidence to support the continued detention of the "Algerian Six." If they fail to do so, judges could order their release from Guantanamo Bay.

The six men include Bensayah Belkacem, Boudella el Hajj, Lakhdar Boumediene, Sabir Mahfouz Lahmar, Mustafa Ait Idr and Mohammad Nechle. They were formally arrested by Bosnian authorities between 8 and 21 October 2001 in the Bosnian cities of Sarajevo, Zenica and Bihac. All six had worked for Islamic charity branches in Bosnia headquartered in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. After the war, they married Bosnian women and gained Bosnian citizenship.

They were held in Bosnian custody during a three-month investigation into US claims that the men had plotted an attack on the US and UK embassies, causing their temporary closure.

This investigation produced no evidence to justify their continued detention and the six men were then ordered released by the Bosnian Supreme Court, at the recommendation of the prosecutor. However, just hours before their release in January 2002, the six were handed over to the US Army base in Bosnia and deported to Guantanamo Bay.

Non-combat detainees

Unlike other Guantanamo detainees, the case of the Algerian group is unique in that the six were not captured in combat in Afghanistan, nor has it been proved that they have at any time fought in Afghanistan.

To date, the six men have not been charged or tried by the US for any crime. In late 2004, they were sent before Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRTs), which concluded that the six had been properly deemed "enemy combatants" based on classified evidence that had been used to justify their detention.

All attention is now focused on what the US administration will present as evidence for their continued detention. The defense for the Algerian Six believes that all the authorities can pin on them are their connections with the Islamic aid organizations for which they worked.

Meanwhile, ISN Security Watch has obtained documents from US and Bosnian Federation intelligence services explaining why the six were arrested by Bosnian authorities in the first place, and what charges could possibly await them.

Intelligence vs evidence

One month after 9/11, the Bosnian Federation anti-terror unit, with support from US intelligence, located eight men of Algerian origin who, according to intelligence data, were plotting an attack on the US Embassy in Sarajevo.

Less then two weeks later, Bosnian authorities arrested six Algerian men, while two others managed to flee the country. Federation police issued a warrant for Atif Munassur (aka Abu Nasar) and Khaled El-Arbed. Their whereabouts are still unknown.

Of the six arrested, five had Bosnian passports while one had a Bosnian residence permit. Further inquiry showed that Bosnian citizenships had been granted to them based on falsified information. As such, Bosnian authorities moved to revoke their citizenships in January 2002.

A retired Bosnian Federation intelligence agent who led the case against the six, told ISN Security Watch on condition of anonymity that some of those arrested were in contact with close associates of Osama bin Laden.

The source said that his agency had received a document from the US Embassy in Sarajevo saying that Belkacem Bensayah (aka Abu Al Maid) had been in telephone contact with Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn (aka Abu Zubaydah).

Abu Zubaydah, a high-ranking member of al-Qaida, was in charge of coordinating Mujahideen recruitment from Afghanistan for the Bosnian war. He was arrested by US forces in March 2002 in a safe house in Pakistan and is currently being held at Guantanamo.

The intelligence source said that the agency also had received a memorandum from the US Embassy in Sarajevo to the effect that US intelligence had intercepted a telephone communication between one number registered in the city of Zenica and a mobile phone number used by Abu Zubaydah. The source said that Bensayah and Abu Zubaydah had discussed how to obtain passports from different countries and visa stamps needed by Abu Zubaydah. The US alleges that Bensayah's mobile phone records show 70 calls to Afghanistan in October 2001. Bosnian police suspect Bensayah of forging at least two passports for himself, one Yemeni and one Algerian.

Soon after, Federal police located the address from which the telephone calls were made and on 8 October raided the house used by Bensayah, taking him into custody. "During the raid, we found a photo of an unknown person and a blank birth certificate from Pristina, Kosovo, as well as a note with a foreign telephone number and the name of Abu Zubaydah beside it," a Federal inspector who led the raid and the interrogation of Belkacem Bensayah told ISN Security Watch.

According to Bosnia's Federation Anti-Terror Unit, Bensayah, unlike other members of the Algerian Six, did not have a criminal file. During the war in Bosnia he voluntarily worked for the Islamic Al Haramain charity of Saudi Arabia.

The charity was alleged to be a front for al-Qaida, and although all charges were dropped by a US federal judge, it is now banned worldwide by the UN Security Council Committee. The Bosnian Federation inspector told ISN Security Watch that they confiscated a large amount of money and gold during the raid of Bensayah's flat.

The only member who did not have Bosnian citizenship is Sabir Mahfouz Lahmar, who gained permanent residency in 1997 in the city of Mostar after he left Zenica, the wartime headquarters of the El-Mujahid unit of foreign fighters from Islamic countries. Upon his arrival in Zenica, Lahmar connected with a group of former El-Mujahid fighters and members of the radical Wahhabi movement.

One of the members of that group was Ali Ahmed Ali Hamad, a close associate of Saudi Ahmed Zuhair (aka Handala). Ali Hamad and Handala were accused of planting a car bomb in the Catholic part of Mostar in September 1997. For that crime, Handala was sentenced to 10 years in prison in absentia, having fled the country before he was convicted. He was later arrested in Rijeka, Croatia but managed to escape from custody.

Two years earlier, the US suspected Handala of involvement in the shooting and killing of US citizen William Jefferson, who was working for the UN in the Bosnian city of Tuzla. Police found Jefferson's gun in Handala's possession. According to a source from Bosnia's intelligence service (OSA), Handala was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 by US forces and transferred to Guantanamo Bay.

After connecting with Ali Hamad, Bosnian authorities suspected Lahmar of a number of serious crimes, including the failed October 1997 plot to murder the guardian of the Franciscan monastery in Guca Gora, near Zenica.

In 2004, Lahmar was arrested along with two accomplices for assault and robbery against Miles Kelvin, an employee of MPRI (an US firm engaged in training Bosnian army personnel) and a separate charge for a robbery carried out in the vicinity of Travnik. Kelvin was severely beaten, tied up and left in the bathtub of his apartment. According to authorities Lahmar stole US$3,000 from him and his car, which was sold soon after.

A court in Zenica sentenced Lahmar to five years and eight months in prison. However, before he served his full sentence he was amnestied by Bosnian authorities. He then moved to Sarajevo and married a Bosnian woman whose father worked in the US Embassy.

It was then that Lahmar became of interest to US intelligence services, who had reason to believe that he, through his father-in-law, had attempted to obtain information on a number of embassy employees, rooms layouts and security schedules.

"US officers showed us the document of the intercepted telephone conversation from 16 October, between Lahmar and an unidentified person where Lahmar says: 'We start tomorrow,'" the Federal inspector said.

This information was understood as a serious threat, and on the same night, the US and UK embassies closed their offices in Sarajevo. The following day, Federation authorities from the anti-terror unit arrested Lahmar and Mustafa Ait Idr. During a raid on Lahmar's apartment, police found two plane tickets to Budapest and Damask for 18 October.

The US Embassy document also alleges that it was these same two men whose voices were heard on a telephone messages from 14 October in which alleged al-Qaida leaders from Afghanistan warned their supporters in Bosnia to leave the country as soon as possible.

Enter Algeria

After the six were arrested and their citizenships revoked, Bosnian authorities contacted the Algerian government in an effort to deport them. The Algerian authorities failed to provide any guarantees that if deported the six would not be executed for belonging to Islamic militant groups.

ISN Security Watch's source in the Bosnian Anti-Terror Unit said that one Algerian intelligence official arrived in Sarajevo to provide more details on the six arrested and, saying that the were of "high security interest" for Algeria.

The Algerian intelligence official said that at least 60 Algerians were living in Bosnia, having arrived there during the war either to fight or to work for charities.

Further investigation showed that some of those Algerians, such as another member of the Algerian Six, Boudella el Hajj, have been the subject of investigation in Algeria.

In Bosnia, el Hajj worked for Benevolence International (BIF) in Zenica - an organization that the UN has banned worldwide under suspicion of providing financial support for al-Qaida. US authorities suspected Boudella's involvement with two Islamic militant groups - Algeria's Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and Egypt's al-Gama'a al Islamiyya.

The Anti-Terror Unit source said that for Lakhdar Boumediene, who worked for the Sarajevo office of the Red Crescent of United Arab Emirates, neither Sarajevo nor Washington had evidence that he was a member of any militant group or was involved in plotting any attacks in Bosnia. According to the source, Boumediene was arrested only because he had on several occasions provided subsistence to Bensayah Belkacem.

For the sixth member of the group, Mohammad Nechle, who worked for Red Crescent of the United Arab Emirates in the city of Bihac, US intelligence provided Bosnian authorities with information that he had ties to the GIA and that he had attended several meetings with other Algerians in Sarajevo.

Belated accusations

After the Algerian government rejected Bosnia's deportation request, the Bosnian Supreme Court ordered their release. However, the Bosnian government was then pressured, if not blackmailed, by US authorities to hand over the men. Three days later, the six arrived at Guantanamo, handcuffed and blindfolded to the outrage of human rights groups in Bosnia.

In late June this year, the Sarajevo Canton Prosecution launched an inquiry against several then-high-ranking officials, including the former Bosnian prime minister, deputy interior ministry and employees of the Sarajevo prison, on suspicion that they illegally handed over the six to US authorities.

However, the accused have rejected the accusations, calling them part of a political campaign ahead of upcoming local elections. Most of the accused are members of the opposition moderate Social Democratic Party (SDP), which was in power at the time of the deportation of the Algerian Six.