Ex-Guantanamo inmates may be spared French prison
PARIS, Dec 11 (Reuters) - A public prosecutor asked a French court on Tuesday to give jail sentences of just one year to five former inmates of Guantanamo Bay on trial for links to al Qaeda, to ensure they are spared prison even if convicted.
Prosecutor Sonia Djemni-Wagner said the request took into account the 18-30 months they had spent incarcerated in the U.S. military prison on the Cuban island, adding that the men had already suffered too much there. They say they were tortured.
"None of them should have been on that base, which flouts international law, to suffer what they suffered," Djemni-Wagner told the court. She said a sixth defendant should be cleared.
The court will adjourn on Wednesday after defence argument and announce its verdict at a later date.
Defence lawyers argue all six should be cleared, saying the prosecution case was fatally compromised when the detainees were illegally questioned by French agents while in American hands in 2002.
The court on Sept. 26, 2006 postponed its verdict and ordered that the agents be questioned along with the diplomat who informed Paris of the Guantanamo encounter.
The court received the names of the agents but was unable to question them, although it did interview other officials.
According to the prosecution, five of the six accused received military training in al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan between 2000 and 2001.
Five of the men have acknowledged being in al Qaeda training camps but said they had been recruited in France and had not carried out any military action before their capture.
The men were arrested in Afghanistan and Pakistan after the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001, and were transferred to Guantanamo. They were eventually returned to France in 2004 and 2005 after negotiations between Paris and Washington. (Reporting by Thierry Leveque; Writing by Jon Boyle; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)
