Mosa Zi Zemmori is a Belgian citizen who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.[2] His Guantanamo detainee ID number was 270. The Department of Defense reports that his date of birth is 3 July 1978, in Wilrijk, Belgium. He was repatriated to Belgium on 25 April 2005.[3] When he was arrested he was characterized as a Moroccan, or a Belgian, from Morocco, although the DoD says he was born in Belgium.[4][5][6]
| Mosa Zi Zemmori | |
|---|---|
| Born | 3 July 1978[1] Wilrijk, Belgium |
| Citizenship | Belgian |
| Detained at | Guantanamo |
| ISN | 270 |
| Charge(s) | No charge (held in extrajudicial detention) |
| Status | Repatriated |
Life
editPress reports routinely assert Zemmori was detained while in Kandahar, in the south of Afghanistan.[4][5][6] But the official DoD allegations against Zemmori acknowledge he was detained in Pakistan, after turning himself in to Pakistani officials.[7] Those documents say he was transferred to a detention facility in Kandahar.
Administrative Review Board
editDetainees whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal labeled them "enemy combatants" were scheduled for annual Administrative Review Board hearings. These hearings were designed to assess the threat a detainee might pose if released or transferred, and whether there were other factors that warranted his continued detention.[8]
Repatriation
editZemmori was repatriated to Belgium on 25 April 2005, along with Mesut Sen. [3] Reuters reports he was held, for a time, by Belgian authorities.[6]
July 2015 arrest
editPolice in Belgium reported that in July 2015, five men were arrested accused of conspiracy in an armed robbery that was intended to raise funds to support recruitment of fighters in Syria, the five included Zemmori and a second former Guantanamo prisoner.[4][5][6] The arrests occurred on 22 July 2015 but were not reported in the English-speaking press until 24 July. The Guardian and Reuters both described Zemmori as a "37-year-old Belgian of Moroccan origin". CNN described him as "a Moroccan national born in Antwerp.".
In May 2009, Zemmori and the other former Guantanamo prisoner were both cleared of the criminal conspiracy charges.[9]
Open letter to President Biden
editOn 29 January 2021 the New York Review of Books published an open letter from Zemmori, and six other individuals who were formerly held in Guantanamo, to newly inaugurated President Biden, appealing to him to close the detention camp.[10]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ JTF GTMO Detainee nyt.com
- ^
OARDEC. "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 15 May 2006.
Works related to List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006 at Wikisource
- ^ a b
"Timeline: Guantanamo Bay prison". Al Jazeera. 7 October 2009. Archived from the original on 30 December 2011. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
April 25: Mosa Zi Zemmori and Mesut Sen are repatriated to Belgium.
- ^ a b c
"Two former Guantánamo inmates arrested in Belgium on terror charges". The Guardian. 24 July 2015. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
Zemmouri, who was the only one of the five not arrested at the scene, was locked up in Guantánamo from 2001 to 2005 on suspicion of belonging to the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM), blamed for attacks in Casablanca and Madrid.
- ^ a b c
Paul Cruikshank (24 July 2015). "Official: Two former Guantanamo detainees arrested in Belgium". CNN. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
One of the former Guantanamo Bay detainees was Moussa Zemmouri, 37, a Moroccan national born in Antwerp, Belgian federal prosecutors announced Friday.
- ^ a b c d
Robin Emmott (24 July 2015). "Belgium arrests two ex-Guantanamo inmates on terrorism charges". Brussels: Reuters. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
Zemmouri was captured in the Kandahar region in southern Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He was flown back to Belgium in April 2005 and later released after spending time in a Belgian prison.
- ^ Margot Williams (3 November 2008). "Guantanamo Docket: Mosa Zi Zemmori". New York Times. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
- ^ "Annual Administrative Review Boards for Enemy Combatants Held at Guantanamo Attributable to Senior Defense Officials". 6 March 2007. Retrieved 12 November 2010.
- ^ Worthington, Andy (3 September 2011). "WikiLeaks and the Guantánamo Prisoners Released After the Tribunals, 2004 to 2005 (Part Two of Five) section: Mosa Zi Zemmori (ISN 270, Belgium) Released April 2005". andyworthington.com. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
- ^
Mansoor Adayfi; Moazzam Begg; Lakhdar Boumediane; Sami Al Hajj; Ahmed Errachidi; Mohammed Ould Slahi; Mosa Zi Zemmori (29 January 2021). "An Open Letter to President Biden About Guantánamo". New York Review of Books. Archived from the original on 30 January 2021. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
At your inauguration, you told the world: "We will be judged, you and I, by how we resolve these cascading crises of our era. We will rise to the occasion." It is therefore our suggestion that the following steps are taken to close Guantánamo
