Will France show the same humanity towards stranded Guantanamo prisoner Nabil Hadjarab as it has shown Sakineh Ashtiani?

France has shown great humanity towards Sakineh Ashtiani in taking a stand against her execution. Will that same humanity be shown to stranded Guantanamo prisoner Nabil Hadjarab? 

This week Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called on the 27 member states of the European Union to send a joint letter to the Iranian government threatening economic sanctions if Iranian Sakineh Ashtiani is executed.

Carla Bruni Sarkozy and other high profile figures in France have spoken out against the death sentence handed down to Sakineh, braving personal insults from an Iranian newspaper.

As both a French person and someone participating in an equally urgent campaign to help resettle Guantanamo prisoner Nabil Hadjarab to France, I can’t help but wonder whether France will show the same humanity to Nabil?

If my country shows no hesitation in helping Sakineh (whose fate depends almost entirely on the Iranian authorities), it may also consider taking a stand on a human rights matter in which they could make a significant difference.

Reprieve has now been actively campaigning on behalf of Nabil for over a year. Nabil has been unlawfully detained since 2002 (without any charge or trial), and was cleared for release by the Bush administration in 2007. Nabil now faces imminent forced repatriation to Algeria, after the Supreme Court ruled that the Obama administration could deport prisoners against their will.

Nabil spent a significant part of his childhood in France and he now desperately needs his uncle Ahmed (who is French and currently living in France) to help him successfully rebuild his life. When I interviewed and filmed Ahmed, he told me how he worries day and night about the fate of his nephew. For Nabil, rebuilding his life will be a real ordeal in Algeria, where he would have no family or social support. Reprieve's experience is that such support is crucial for newly-released prisoners.

Nabil’s father (now deceased) honourably served France all his life and even fought in the French army during the war against Algeria. 

After many attempts to contact the government, Nabil’s uncle, who thinks of his nephew as his own son, wrote a desperate letter to President Sarkozy in June:

“It seems to me that if the General de Gaulle was still alive, he would have welcomed positively my request. He may have thought that Nabil’s father having served France so much, it would have been difficult to consider Nabil as unknown to France. Today I am asking humanity of the US and gratitude of France.”

Yet, three months later, he still hasn’t received even a phone call.