Lakhdar Boumediene
| Lakhdar Boumediene لخضر بومدين |
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|---|---|
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| Born |
April 27, 1966 Aïn Soltane, Saïda, Algeria |
| Released | May 19, 2009 France |
| Detained at | Guantanamo |
| ISN | 10005 |
| Status | Released |
Lakhdar Boumediene, (Arabic: لخضر بومدين) a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was held in military custody in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba beginning in January 2002. Boumediene was the lead plaintiff in Boumediene v. Bush (2008), a U.S. Supreme Court decision that Guantanamo detainees and other foreign nationals have the right to file writs of habeas corpus in U.S. federal courts.
He and four other of the Algerian Six plaintiffs were released from Guantánamo on May 15, 2009 after a US Federal judge found that "the Bush administration relied on insufficient evidence to imprison them indefinitely as ‘enemy combatants.’" He now lives in Provence, France, with his wife and children.
Born and raised in Algeria, as an adult Boumediene worked for various humanitarian causes. He worked for the Red Crescent Society of the United Arab Emirates. It also had an office in Sarajevo and, at the request of his employer, Boumediene moved with his family to Bosnia, where he served as director of humanitarian aid for children who had lost relatives during the Balkan conflicts. He became a Bosnian citizen in 1998.
In early October 2001, less than a month after al Qaeda's attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States, intelligence analysts in the United States Embassy in Sarajevo became concerned that an increase in chatter was a clue that al Qaeda was planning an attack on the embassy there. At their request, Bosnia arrested Bensayah Belkacem, the man they believed had made dozens of phone calls to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and five acquaintances of his, including Boumediene. All six were Algerian-born residents of Bosnia, and five were Bosnian citizens; one had permanent residency status. They all worked for charities and non-profits.
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