On 5 January 2011, Said Farhi was forcibly repatriated to Algeria against his will. Imprisoned by the US since 2001, Said had been fighting a court battle to be allowed to stay in Guantanamo for fear of torture and persecution in his home country. Reprieve has grave fears for his safety.
Said was born in Algeria, where he served in the military as a young man. He disliked the experience intensely, and soon fled Algeria to begin a new life in Europe. He threw away his Algerian passport, fearful that if he was arrested by the authorities, they would see the passport and send him home.
Said was desperate to find a safe home somewhere in Europe, but knew that there were few options to legitimise his status. In January 2001 Said travelled from Italy to the UK using false travel documents. Whilst praying at his London mosque, Said met a man who told him that he knew a Swedish woman living in Afghanistan who would marry him, thus making him a legal European resident. It was a chance that he couldn’t afford to miss.
Said travelled to Afghanistan to meet with individuals who he believed would introduce him to the Swedish woman. In the end, he never met her, or even knew if she existed, because events in New York were about to change the situation in Afghanistan. Like many people, in the days following 9/11, Said heard of Al-Qaeda for the first time.
When the US bombing of Afghanistan started in autumn 2001, Said fled the country, crossing the porous border to Pakistan. Local villagers were hospitable at first, but after Ramadan they handed Said over to the Pakistani police. The Pakistanis, who were being paid substantial bounties for Arab prisoners by the Americans, transferred Said to US custody where he remains to this day.
Said strongly denies all allegations that have linked him to terrorism. He admits living illegally in Europe, and insists he only travelled to Afghanistan because there was a chance that he could become a legitimate European citizen by marrying a Swedish woman.
Instead, he spent nine years locked up in Guantanamo Bay. Said was relieved when a US District judge cleared him for release, accepting that he has nothing to do with terrorism. But return to Algeria was unthinkable for Said, and he chose instead to wait for another country to offer him asylum.
On January 5 2011, the US forcibly repatriated a terrified Said Farhi to Algeria, despite his pending appeal to the US Supreme Court, against his will and without notice.
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