Ex-Guantanamo prisoners go on trial in France
Pakistan Times Wire Service

PARIS: Six French former inmates of the controversial U.S. military detention centre in Guantanamo Bay went on trial in a French court on Monday, accused of links with a network plotting terrorism attacks.

The six, who have all spent lengthy periods in detention in Cuba and in France, face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

The prosecution alleges the men joined a terrorism network based in Britain and the Afghan-Pakistan border, having mostly transited Britain en route to al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.

Khaled ben Mustapha, Mourad Benchellali, Nizar Sassi, Imad Achab-Kanouni and Redouane Khalid refused to comment on arrival at the main Paris Criminal Court. A sixth man, Brahim Yadel, remains in custody.

Lawyers say at most their clients were guilty of naivety in remaining in Afghanistan when U.S. forces arrived to evict al Qaeda bases following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.●