Bensayah Belkacem

Bensayah Belkacem
JTF-GTMO official photo of Bensayah Belkacem.
Detained at	Guantanamo
ISN	10001
Charge(s)	no charge
Status	repatriated
Occupation	clergyman

Bensayah Belkacem is a citizen of Bosnia, previously held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. Born in Algeria, he was arrested in his home in Bosnia, on October 8, 2001, shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Bensayah Belkacem arrived at the Guantanamo detention camps on January 21, 2002, and was held there for 11 years, 10 months and 14 days. In October 2008 his case was heard by the US District Court for the District of Columbia, which recommended his continued detention. This was later overturned on appeal.

Belkacem and five other men, native-born Algerians who were charity workers and colleagues of his, were arrested on suspicion of plotting to bomb the American embassy in Bosnia. They are known as the Algerian Six. The other five men were released in 2009. This followed the Supreme Court decision in Boumediene v. Bush (2008) that said the military commissions were unconstitutional and provided for detainees to have their habeas corpus petitions heard by the US federal civilian court. After reviewing their cases, US District Court Judge Richard J. Leon ruled each of the five was being held illegally, but he ordered the continued detention of Belkacem.

His decision was appealed to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. On June 28, 2010, a three-judge panel reversed Leon's ruling, holding that Belkacem could not be considered a member of al-Qaeda. The Justice Department said it would respond.

On December 5, 2013, U.S. Department of Defense released a statement saying that Belkacem had been returned to Algeria.

American intelligence officials had grown alarmed by an increase in the "chatter" in terrorist networks. After Belkacem's extrajudicial capture, news media reported that a search of his home turned up pro-jihadist material.

He was eventually "accused of helping people who wanted to travel to Afghanistan and join Al Qaeda". He was transported January 21, 2002 to the Guantanamo detention camp and has been held there since.