Benamar Benatta

Benamar "Ben" Benatta (* 1974/75) is an Algerian refugee.

One day after the attacks of September 11, 2001 , on September 12, 2001, he entered the USA and was arrested as a terrorist suspect. According to the Los Angeles Times , he was held for 1,780 days. Benatta has been held in the US longer than any other suspect without any evidence.

Benatta was a lieutenant in the Algerian Air Force who was sent to the United States for training.

Benatta crossed the Canadian border on September 5, 2001 and has been a refugee since then. The Canadian immigration authorities handed it over to the US authorities on September 12th.

The Los Angeles Times reported that in November 2001, American security agencies confirmed that Benatta had no ties to terrorism.

On July 20, 2006, the American authorities returned him to the Canadian immigration authorities.

“I kept telling myself, maybe what was happening was ... some kind of dream. I never believed that something like this could happen in the USA. "

- Benamar Benatta : on Los Angeles Times

Web links

• Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff: The curse of false suspicion . Zeit online, January 8, 2004
• Benamar Benatta v. United States of America, Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, UN Doc. E / CN.4 / 2005/6 / Add.1 at 67 (2004).
• Anushka Asthana: Domestic Detainee From 9/11 Released . washingtonpost.com, July 21, 2006
• Benamar Benatta: Domestic victim of US injustice in the “War on Terror” . andyworthington.co.uk, August 8, 2007