Ex-Gitmo detainee re-arrested in Pakistan for allegedly aiding al-Qaeda

by David Jonasson

One of the three Swedish citizens who last week where arrested in Pakistan is, according to public broadcaster SVT, Mehdi Ghezali, who for several years was imprisoned at the U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay on Cuba.

According to reports in Pakistani media, the three Swedes were arrested together with seven Turks and one Russian, suspected for collaboration with the jihadist terror network al Qaida.

According to SVT the three arrested Swedes have been taken to the Pakistan capital Islamabad.

In December 2001 the 30-year-old Ghezali was arrested in Pakistan, close to the border near the Tora Bora Mountains in Afghanistan and was shortly thereafter handed over to U.S. military.

Ghezali was released from the Guántanamo base in July 2004, without having been brought to justice. The United States never told what crimes he was a suspect of.

After returning to Sweden, Ghezali claimed to have been subjected to torture, but refused to answer any questions about why he had been in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Pakistani authorities also have suspected Ghezali to have been involved in a prison uprising where 17 people were killed, this he has denied