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27 April 2005
BRUSSELS – The two Belgians who were this week freed from US custody in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have been charged in their home country with criminal activity, it emerged on Wednesday.
The two – Mesut Sen, a Belgian with Turkish roots from Brussels, and Moussa Zemmouri, a Moroccan who was granted Belgian nationality in 1996 – have been charged with belonging to a criminal organisation.
“The investigation is continuing and they will be questioned again,” Lieve Pellens, a spokeswoman for the Brussels prosecutors office told the AFP news agency.
The prosecutor decided to bring the charges after questioning the two men on Tuesday.
However the pair have been released while awaiting further questioning.
Sen and Zemmouri were flown back to Belgium this week after spending more than three years at the controversial US detention camp in Cuba.
Belgian Justice and Interior Ministers Laurette Onkelinx and Patrick Dewael negotiated their release with the American government.
The repatriation came shortly after the US promised to release 38 detainees.
Sen was originally arrested in Pakistan in December 2001 and Zemmouri was arrested in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.
[Copyright Expatica 2005]
Subject: Belgian news