Khaled Ben Mustafa is a citizen of France who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.[1]
The Department of Defense reports that Mustafa was born on January 9, 1972, in Lyon, France.
His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 236.
Quick Facts Charge(s) ...
Close
Although originally convicted in France, his trial was overturned and he was released in February 2009.[2]
On February 17, 2010, the Court of Cassation, a higher court, ordered a re-trial of Khaled Ben Mustafa and four other men.[3]
On January 18, 2012, Sophie Clement, the investigating magistrate in Ben Mustafa's case, requested permission from the USA to travel to Guantanamo to investigate the claims Ben Mustafa and other men had made that they were tortured there.[4]
Khaled Ben Mustafa, and four other French citizens, were convicted in 2007 of "criminal association with a terrorist enterprise."[10]
They had their convictions overturned on appeal on February 24, 2009. Their convictions were overturned because they were based on interrogations conducted in Guantanamo, and the interrogations were conducted by French security officials, not law enforcement officials.
On February 17, 2010, a higher court of appeals, the Court of Cessations, re-instated the charges against the six men.[3] On January 20, 2011, Mustafa`s lawyers cited diplomatic cables published by whistleblower organization WikiLeaks which they argued showed inappropriate cooperation between French and American officials.[11]
On January 18, 2012, Sophie Clement, the Chief Investigating Magistrate in the six men's case, requested permission to go to Guantanamo, to investigate the claims of Ben Mustafa and the other men that they had been tortured. She requested access to the internal documents about the men.
[4]
According to the Associated Press,
Philippe Meilhac, Ben Mustafa's lawyer, described Clement's request as "unprecedented":
This [request] is unprecedented. But it's normal that the judge leading the investigation approach those concerned at Guantanamo to verify these claims.[4]