Italy frees former Guantanamo detainee
Feb 6, 2012, 6:48 PM
MILAN (AP) – An Italian appeals court has overturned the terrorism conviction of a Tunisian man who had spent nearly eight years in the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo, Cuba.
Mohamed Ben Riadh Nasri, who had been convicted of terrorism association by a lower Italian court, was one of three Tunisian prisoners from Guantanamo that Italy accepted more than two years ago.
Nasri’s lawyer, Roberto Novellino, said the appeals court in Milan on Monday threw out the guilty verdict and its six-year sentence, meaning his client is a free man. The court’s reasoning will be released in 30 days.
A second Tunisian man who had served time at Guantanamo was released for time served and returned home, while the third remains in an Italian prison.
(This version CORRECTS amount of time Nasri spent at Guantanamo from nine years to nearly eight.)
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