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Court delays verdict for 'Guantanamo six'

A French court Wednesday postponed its verdict in the terrorism trial of six former Guantanamo inmates.

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PARIS: A French court Wednesday postponed its verdict in the terrorism trial of six former Guantanamo inmates, scheduling more hearings for next May to consider new evidence from intelligence agents.   

The court had been expected to hand down a verdict on the six defendants, who were held for up to three years at the US base in Cuba following their capture in Afghanistan in 2001.   

"I am sorry," said Judge Jean-Claude Kross, addressing the lawyers. "We have to start again from scratch.   

"We may have to consider obtaining access to classified intelligence material," he added.   

The court notably wants to hear from French foreign intelligence agents who questioned the suspects in Guantanamo.   

At the men's trial in July, defence lawyers accused France of colluding with the US authorities over the Guantanamo detentions by sending secret service agents to question them in Cuba, outside of any legal framework.   

Mourad Benchellali, 25, Nizar Sassi, 26, Khaled Ben Mustapha, 34, Redouane Khalid, 38, Brahim Yadel, 36, and Imad Achab Kanouni, 29, were captured in 2001 during the US-led war to oust the Taliban and handed over to US forces.   

Released to France in 2004 and 2005, they were accused of staying in Afghan camps linked to Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and charged with "criminal conspiracy in relation to a terrorist enterprise".   

The state attorney called for all but Kanouni to be found guilty, but asked for lenient, one-year prison sentences, saying their "abnormal detention" in Guantanamo should be taken into account.   

She argued that the five others knowingly travelled to Afghanistan using a "terrorist" underground network based in London. Some of them had admitted to staying in Al-Qaeda camps, but all denied fighting US forces or planning attacks in Europe. Though none is currently in detention, all six spent periods in pre-trial custody and could therefore expect to avoid jail if the court follows the prosecutor's recommendation.   

Separately, a 37 year-old Moroccan man suspected of having links with the September 11 attackers, went on trial in Paris Wednesday accused of terrorist-related offences.   

Karim Mehdi, who was arrested in June 2003, is the only person to face charges arising out of the French judicial investigation into the 2001 attacks in the United States.   

According to documents read in court, the Moroccan was in contact with Ziad Jarrah -- a Lebanese who was on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania -- as well as Ramzi Binalshibh, a Yemeni believed to have been among the plotters.   

However there was no evidence he took part in planning the suicide hijackings.   

Prosecutors also believe Mehdi had links with German national Christian Ganczarski, suspected of involvement in the 2002 bomb attack on a synagogue in the Tunisian town of Djerba which killed 21.   

Mehdi told the court that he met the two men only once, on a visit to the German city of Hamburg. "I have nothing to do with these stories," he said.   

He was detained in 2003 at Charles-de-Gaulle airport en route from Germany to the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, where investigators say he was planning to carry out surveillance for a future bomb attack.

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