AP News, October 24th, 2007
A Tunisian once held in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay was convicted of terrorism charges Wednesday, judicial officials said.
Lotfi Lagha was sentenced by the Tunis criminal court to three years in prison — half the maximum penalty — on charges of associating with a criminal group with the aim of harming or causing damage in Tunisia. Officials did not name the group or specify what violence it planned.
Defense lawyer Samir Ben Amor said he would appeal the guilty verdict.
"We thought he would get justice in his own country after what he endured at Guantanamo," he told The Associated Press.
Lagha's lawyers claimed he was beaten after being returned home in June from the detention center at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he spent more than five years. He also alleged mistreatment while in U.S. custody.
Another Tunisian still held at Guantanamo, Salah Ben Hedi Jilani Sassi, was convicted in absentia by the court on charges of undergoing military training in Afghanistan and having links to a terrorist group — an allusion to al-Qaida. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
The court dismissed other counts against Lagha, including allegations that he received military training in Afghanistan and that he fought with or recruited for that nation's former Taliban regime.
Lagha traveled to Afghanistan in early 2001 from Italy, where he had settled three years earlier as an illegal immigrant. His lawyer said Lagha was at Tora Bora at the height of the U.S.-led military campaign that ousted the Taliban regime. It remained unclear why he was there.
Police in neighboring Pakistan detained Lagha in early 2002 along the border with Afghanistan.
Amor claims Lagha was beaten while held by the U.S. military in Afghanistan. The lawyer also contends U.S. medics amputated Lagha's frostbitten fingers unnecessarily and against his will while he was held at the U.S.-run detention center in Bagram.
Asked in September to respond to those allegations, Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith did not have details about Lagha's case, but said all detainees are treated humanely.
