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Three British-linked terrorism suspects have been released from the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and sent back to Britain. At the same time a French court has convicted five former Guantanamo inmates of terrorist links. VOA's Sonja Pace has details from London.
Jordanian-born Jamil el-Banna, Algerian-born Abdenour Sameur, and Omar Deghayes from Libya were all long-time legal residents in Britain before they were detained at Guantanamo.
The three men were among more than a dozen British citizens or residents sent to the prison camp. The British citizens were all released by January 2005.
Several months ago, Foreign Secretary David Miliband asked American authorities to also release the remaining five British residents. Three have now been freed, two remain in the prison camp.
Abubakir Deghayes, brother of detainee Omar Deghayes, told British radio, that for the family this day was a long time in coming.
"Our life for the past six years has been just about Omar's arrest and Omar being in Guantanamo," said Deghayes. "I hope that he adopts a normal life and gets over all this ordeal and [that he will] be the same as before."
Meanwhile, a court in Paris has convicted five former French Guantanamo inmates of association with a terrorist group. They were among seven suspects captured in and around Afghanistan in 2001 and then handed over to French authorities by 2005. One man was released immediately, while the six others remained under investigation. The court has found five of them guilty and sentenced them to one year in prison. A sixth man was acquitted.
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