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Name: Sabir Mahfouz Lahmar ISN10002
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Nationality: Algerian
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Residence: Bosnia
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Date of Arrest: January 18, 2002
Background:
Sabir Lahmar is an Algerian national resident in Bosnia.
Like other Algerians, Sabir left Algeria in the late eighties and early nineties to make pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca, in Saudi Arabia. The Algerians went their individual ways before fate reunited them in post-war Bosnia.
Sabir married Emina Susic, who was Bosnian, and thus acquired Bosnian citizenship. In Sarajevo, Sabir worked as a librarian at the mosque of the King Fahd Islamic centre, although he planned to study in Syria. He also worked as an administrator in a humanitarian organization. His father was a housekeeper at the US embassy, also at Sarajevo. This link cast suspicion upon Sabir, and caused him to be linked to an alleged attack on the embassy, a claim which Sabir’s father dismisses as inconsequential, saying how he never talked about his work at the embassy to Sabir. Furthermore, Sabir spoke Bosnian poorly, thus could not have had a chance to make contacts there.
Sabir and other Bosnians who also held Bosnian citizenship were stripped of their citizenship in November as part of the Bosnian government’s review of all naturalizations granted during and after the 1992-95 war.
Sabir was taken into custody by the government of Bosnia-Herzegovina. He was later seized, along with 5 other Algerian national, Bosnian residents, by US officials on 18th January 2002. They were transferred to Guantanamo Bay.
The six Bosnian detainees were treated particularly badly. They were moved every two hours. They were kept naked in their cells. They were taken to interrogation for hours on end. They were short shackled for sometimes days on end. They were deprived of their sleep. They never got letters, nor books, nor reading materials. They were given a very hard time by their interrogators. The interrogators said if they didn’t cooperate that they could ensure that something would happen to their families in Algeria and in Bosnia.
Trapped at GuantanamoBy Melissa Hoffer | January 11, 2007 |
Samir was also tortured, held in an isolation cell in Camp Five from August 2004 until mid October 2005, and suffered visual and psychological trauma as a result, according to the Report on Torture Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment of Prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Other articles and reports on torture mention Samir’s name as well.
| In the report at Amnesty International’s Library “From my first day in Cuba, I asked the interrogators to question me regarding the bombing of the Embassy. They tried to avoid asking me questions regarding that matter. On occasion, they told me they knew I didn’t attempt to blow up the Embassy; they only brought me to Cuba for information. They told me if I gave them information, they would let me go. I refused to talk to them until they addressed the accusation of the bombing of the Embassy. This lasted for eight months before they gave up on me talking. I was punished and placed in solitary confinement for three months.” - “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Guantánamo and beyond: The continuing pursuit of unchecked executive power” |
Wiki has a good piece. Algeria-watch.org, a human rights organization has an excellent article, be SURE to read 6 Algerians Languish Despite Foreign Rulings, Dropped Charges
| Mother Jones also has a must-read story called “From Sarajevo to Guantanamo: The Strange Case of the Algerian Six” - Excerpt - On a wintry evening in January 2002, a crowd of more than 150 people gathered outside Sarajevo’s central jail awaiting the release of six prisoners, a group of Algerian-born men suspected of being members of an Al Qaeda cell that had plotted to bomb the U.S. embassy in Bosnia-Herzegovina’s capital city. The alleged Al Qaeda members had been in custody since October, when they were rounded up by Bosnian police, but a major development in the case had arrived earlier that day, after Bosnia’s highest courts issued a pair of rulings, one ordering the immediate release of the prisoners due to lack of evidence and the other preventing the men from being deported. But as the evening wore on and the men had still yet to be set free, the celebratory mood gave way to anxiety. And when, instead of releasing the men, the Bosnian special police forces arrived on the scene intending to hand the men over to the U.S. military, the peaceful gathering quickly turned into a violent confrontation. Riot police intervened and a convoy eventually managed to whisk the prisoners away. |
| TAKE ACTION! |
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Write to him:
Sabir Lahmar ISN10002
Camp Delta
P.O. Box 160
Washington DC 20053
USA
Note: I have heard differing things as to whether the detainees can receive mail from non-relatives, but if nothing else, it’s a good way to protest.
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