Svenske Mehdi Ghezali talar - i jihadistmedia

Svenske medborgaren Mehdi Ghezali har alltsedan sin fångenskap på Gitmo varit otroligt återhållsam med framträdanden i media. Kanske var det de (få) kritiska frågorna som fick honom att dra sig undan. Att han på frågan om vad han ansåg om Usama Bin Ladin svarade "Jag känner honom inte som person och därför kan jag inte döma honom", antydde att han av en eller annan anledning kände sig obekväm med medieuppvaktningen.

I februari i år dök det dock upp en lång intervju med honom. Den publicerades av det jihadistiskt inriktade al Yaqeen Media Center, vars logotyp avbildas till höger.

Intervjun, som är på arabiska, finns tillgänglig på archive.org. Delen med Ghezali är sammanlagt 38 minuter lång, men i den 1,39 timmar långa filmen finns också andra klipp, bland annat från al Qaidas officiella mediebyrå as Sahab.



Intervjun uppmärksammades såvitt kan ses enbart av CBS News Internet terror monitor, som skrev:

A Swedish man of Algerian descent who was held at the U.S. prison in Guantanmo claimed an interview obtained by CBS News that interrogators used sexual tactics while questioning him. Mehdy Ghezali, known as Abu Suhaib al Jazaeri, was held in Guantanamo between January 2002 and July 2004. Prior to his capture he attended a madrasah and mosque in the United Kingdom before travelling to Saudi Arabia , Afghanistan and finally Pakistan where he was captured. Ghezali talked about his arrest and the detention conditions at Guantanamo.

The 1-hour 49-minute video was produced by al Yaqeen Media Centre, in association with al Hesbah Internet forums, and also included excerpts from an old interview with former Taliban information minister Mohammed Yassir, as well as from religious sermons by a number of clerics. The video is expected to be posted on militant Islamist websites soon.

Och senare, när filmen dök upp:

A former prisoner at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo appeared in a video produced by the pro-al Qaeda “al Yaqeen Media Center” and spoke about his experience over there.

In the 38-minute interview which was posted on militant Islamist website, the Algerian national Mahdi Ghazali said Pakistani tribes had handed him over to the Pakistani army, which in turn sold him to the U.S. army.

He said he was then transferred to the Kandahar airbase where he was interrogated and held for 15 days, before he was transferred to the prison in Guantanamo. Mahdi recalled his days in detention and said that some of the guards treated him with respect and compassion.

Den som behärskar arabiska får gärna översätta!

Vi andra kan grubbla över varför Ghezali valt att framträda i detta extremt tvivelaktiga sammanhang.