A Swedish man held for more than two years by the United States in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, returned home Thursday after he was released to the Swedish government by the Pentagon.
| We had somebody named Sven in jug in Guantanamo? |
The Swedish Foreign Ministry said Medhi-Muhammed Ghezali landed at Skavsta Airport in the southern Swedish city of Nykoeping Thursday evening aboard a government-charter private jet.
| Somehow, I didn't think so. |
It was unclear whether Ghezali would return to his father's home in Orebro or be taken to the capital, Stockholm, to be questioned by Swedish officials. Mehdi-Muhammed Ghezali was released to the Swedish government earlier Thursday after more than two years at Guantanamo, where some 600 foreigners are being held on suspicion of being members of al-Qaida or the Taliban. Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds told The Associated Press that Ghezali was not expected to be charged by police for any crime, but she could not say if he would be monitored by security police upon arrival. "That is up to the security police," she said. "I take it for granted that he's free, and I have received no indication that any government department will do anything to try to arrest him."
| "We're just happy to have him back. It's men like him who make Sweden what it is today..." |
Ghezali — born in Sweden to a Finnish mother and Algerian father — was reportedly part of a group of 156 suspected al-Qaida fighters arrested in 2001 by Pakistani authorities while fleeing the Tora Bora mountains into Pakistan. His father, Mehdi Ghezali, has staged a series of on-again, off-again hunger strikes to draw attention to his son's plight. |