14 Facts About Ahcene Zemiri

Ahcene Zemiri was transferred to the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camp in 2002, where he was detained for eight years without charge.

Ahmed Ressam, the terrorist convicted in 2001 of planning the foiled Millennium bombing of the Los Angeles Airport, alleged that Ahcene Zemiri had been involved in the plot.

In January 2010, Ahcene Zemiri was freed from Guantanamo Bay and repatriated to Algeria.

Ahcene Zemiri was born in Algeria, where he was raised as a Muslim.

Ahcene Zemiri settled in Montreal in 1994 and became a legal resident.

Ahcene Zemiri married Karina Dereshteanu, a Canadian woman, in 1997.

Karina Ahcene Zemiri believes that bounty hunters picked up her husband and sold him to the Americans, as was commonly done.

Ahcene Zemiri was transferred by the Americans to Guantanamo in 2002.

Ahmed Ressam, who had been convicted in 2001 of planning the Millennium bombing of the Los Angeles Airport, alleged that Ahcene Zemiri was involved in the plot.

In 2004, Ahcene Zemiri was interrogated at Guantanamo by officials of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, after the Canadian government had been informed of his detention.

In part because of the allegations by Ressam that Ahcene Zemiri was involved in the LAX plot, although he denied it, the US designated Ahcene Zemiri as an unlawful enemy combatant and recommended his continued detention.

In January 2007, the press reported that Ahmed Ressam, who had been convicted in 2001 of planning the Millennium bombing and alleged that Zemiri was involved in the plot, wrote a letter in November 2006 to the US District Court Judge John C Coughenour.

Ahcene Zemiri said he wanted to "clarify" his allegations against Zemiri and recanted his previous accusations.

Ahcene Zemiri noted that two other Algerians, former detainees, had been granted asylum in France, because they had reason to fear a return home.