Paris appeals court acquits ex-Guantanamo inmates

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Source: AP

PARIS (AP) — A Paris appeals court on Tuesday overturned terror convictions for five former Guantanamo inmates, ruling that French intelligence officials improperly questioned them while they were in U.S. custody.

The men, who were arrested in Afghanistan in 2001, were interrogated at Guantanamo by French counterintelligence agents in 2002 and 2004.

Overturning their convictions, the court ruled that the French counterintelligence agency DST could not be both a spy agency and a judicial police service — the body that under French law is authorized to interrogate detainees.

The court refused "to let it be said that a police agency could question people detained on foreign territory in conditions that go against international conventions," said Paul-Albert Iwens, an attorney for Ridouane Khalid.

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They were given three- and four-year suspended sentences and were each sentenced to one year in prison. But because they had served the time before the trial, they did not return to prison following the sentencing.

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