At Guantanamo, Caught in a Legal Trap

Another detainee was flagged because he had performed mandatory service in the Algerian army more than a decade ago, as a cook.

Boudella was accused by the U.S. military of joining bin Laden and Taliban fighters at Tora Bora, Afghanistan, the mountain hideout where the al-Qaeda leadership escaped from U.S. forces in December 2001. In fact, at the time, Boudella was locked up thousands of miles away in Sarajevo, after his arrest in the later-discredited embassy plot.

One fresh allegation filed against Boudella last year was that he wore a ring "similar to those that identified the Red Rose Group members of Hamas," the radical Palestinian movement, according to tribunal records.

Boudella's wife, Nadja Dizdarevic, responded in an interview that the ring is a common anniversary band worn by thousands of Bosnian Muslims. She said she obtained an affidavit from the jeweler in Sarajevo where he bought the ring and submitted it to the U.S. military in hopes that they will drop the charge at his next hearing.

"If it is a mark of belonging to Hamas, then 98 percent of the Bosnian Muslims belong to Hamas," she said. "For every claim they make against him, I have proof to show them they are wrong, so they have to invent something new."

The Defense Department declined to answer specific questions about the case, saying that some evidence against the men remains classified.

But a Pentagon spokesman defended the decision to apprehend the six Algerians.

"There was no mistake in originally detaining these individuals as enemy combatants," said Navy Lt. Cmdr. J.D. Gordon. "Their detention was directly related to their combat activities as determined by an appropriate Defense Department official before they were ever transferred to Guantanamo."

State Dept. Responds

On Feb. 2, 2005, Bosnian Prime Minister Adnan Terzic wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking that the Algerians be returned to Bosnia.

"I took it for granted that it was the responsibility of this government to try to bring these people back," Terzic said in an interview.

Rice responded on March 17 that it was not possible to free the six Algerians because "they still possess important intelligence data" and pose a threat to the security of the United States.

Three months later, the State Department offered a somewhat different explanation. In a letter to U.S. Sen. James M. Jeffords (I-Vt.), Matthew A. Reynolds, acting assistant secretary for legislative affairs, explained that the Algerians could not be released in part because the Bosnian government "has not indicated that it is prepared or willing to accept responsibility for them upon transfer."

Bosnian officials said they received no such offer. They express frustration over the lack of action.

Justice Minister Slobodan Kovac said there would be no legal basis to place the men under arrest or surveillance if they were returned to Bosnia because they have already been exonerated there. "There is no case against them here in Bosnia, no criminal case," he said.

News researcher Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.