Djamel Ameziane

Is This Man Your Enemy? Get to Know Djamel Ameziane

Djamel Ameziane was born April 14, 1967. He is 43 years old. A member of the Berber ethnic group, he fled his native Algeria when he was in his early twenties– seeking a better life.

He found that better life; working as a chef at Al Caminetto Trattoria, one of the best Italian restaurants in Vienna, Austria. Forced to leave when his visa was not renewed, he went to Canada. Living and working in Montreal, Ameziane sought political asylum there as well. When that claim was denied in 2000, Ameziane was out of options. He decided to go to Afghanistan because—as Wells Dixon, a member of his legal team, explained—“My client wanted to go to Afghanistan because he believed it was only there that he could live in peace, anonymously and permanently.”
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Nabil Hadjarab

Algerian Man Sold For Bounty in Afghanistan and Sent to Guantánamo, Wants to Return to France, Where He Was Raised

Nabil Hadjarab, now 31 years old, was “captured” in Afghanistan when he was barely 22. Captured, though, is the wrong word; he was sold to US forces for a bounty of $5,000, a fortune in that country. He had been wounded trying to flee the war; he was taken from his hospital bed in Kandahar to a US military prison. Although he was told – repeatedly – by his interrogators that his was a case of mistaken identity, he was flown to Guantánamo in early 2002. And although he was cleared for release in 2007, he remains there, in some sort of legal limbo, because France refuses to take him back.
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