31 Facts About Mehdi Ghezali

Mehdi Ghezali denied having any knowledge of or participation in the prison uprising.

In July 2012, a day after the Burgas bus bombing Bulgarian media reported that Mehdi Ghezali was the suicide bomber.

Mehdi Ghezali was born in Botkyrka, Stockholm, on 5 July 1979 and grew up in Orebro, the son of an Algerian and a Finnish woman.

Mehdi Ghezali finished secondary studies in 1999 and trained as a welder.

Mehdi Ghezali was suspected of theft the same year, but left the country and could not be questioned by the Swedish police.

Mehdi Ghezali was apprehended by the Portuguese police in the Algarve region of Portugal on 31 July 1999 for a suspected bank robbery and a jewelry theft together with his partner Stavros Christos Toilos.

Mehdi Ghezali then traveled to Medina in Saudi Arabia to study at the university.

Mehdi Ghezali then travelled to Pakistan in the summer of 2001 in order to study at one of the madrasahs situated there.

Mehdi Ghezali was captured by local warlords in Pakistan in the Tora Bora mountains which are close to the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and then handed over to the US Armed Forces which transported him to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base on Cuba where Ghezali was held at Guantanamo Bay detainment camp.

When questioned about the prison uprising at the press conference following his release Mehdi Ghezali denied having any knowledge of or participation in the prison uprising.

Mehdi Ghezali supposedly refused to discuss what he was doing in Afghanistan and Pakistan with the agents of the Swedish government.

Mehdi Ghezali was transported home by the Swedish Air Force on a Gulfstream IV jet, at the expense of the Swedish government.

Mehdi Ghezali was the subject of the English-language documentary Gitmo - The New Rules of War.

The article said that Swedish security agents have said Mehdi Ghezali is not a threat.

Mehdi Ghezali has stated in his book that he feels he is being intensely monitored by the Swedish Security Service, both in his home and when he moves around.

Mehdi Ghezali has made statements describing his stay at the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp.

Mehdi Ghezali is planning a class-action lawsuit against the USA.

Mehdi Ghezali has together with Gosta Hulten published a book, Fange Pa Guantanamo: Mehdi Ghezali berattar.

Mehdi Ghezali says that he was in Afghanistan on September 11,2001, living with a normal family in Jalalabad.

At a press conference following his return to Sweden, Mehdi Ghezali said the following about the al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden:.

On 4 July 2006, Mehdi Ghezali made his first public appearance since his release at a demonstration held outside the US Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden.

Mehdi Ghezali, who declined to answer any questions from reporters, and the other demonstrators appeared in support of Oussama Kassir, the Swedish citizen at the time being held in the Czech Republic for alleged involvement with al-Qaeda.

Mehdi Ghezali is reported to have dropped his suit against the US government.

On 10 September 2009, the Swedish television programme Rapport reported that Mehdi Ghezali was among a group of twelve foreign citizens who had been arrested one week earlier in the Dera Ghazi Khan District in Punjab, Pakistan, on suspicions of having ties to al-Qaeda.

One should remember that Mehdi Ghezali has traveled in that region previously and he has an interest in the region.

Swedish newspaper, The Local quoted Gosta Hulten, the author of a book on Mehdi Ghezali, who said that Mehdi Ghezali's father believed he was on a religious pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

Mehdi Ghezali has already been cleared from those suspicions once.

On 16 September 2009, two of Mehdi Ghezali's traveling companions were identified.

Mehdi Ghezali's lawyers expressed concern that Swedish intelligence officials continued to keep Ghezali under surveillance.

Bulgarian media suggested on 19 July 2012 that Mehdi Ghezali might have been the suicide bomber responsible for the 18 July Burgas bus attack.

The Swedish Security Service responded with a brief statement that Mehdi Ghezali was not the bomber.