Gitmo detainees return

last updated 8 January 2015

Paris

Four French nationals held by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay for two years went home this week. France has been pressing for custody of the men since 2002, when they were captured in Afghanistan fighting with the Taliban. One of them, Brahim Yadel, is suspected of having helped set up an Islamic militant training camp in the Fontainebleau forest, south of Paris. Three other French nationals remain at Guantanamo. Le Monde noted in an editorial that 135 detainees from other countries had already been released. “Since France is not held in high esteem in Washington,” the daily said, “the release of its prisoners was not a high priority.”