Gujarat to Guantanamo: A tale in the twist

[struggle4progress]

AP< THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2005 11:33:24 PM >

PARIS: Mustaq Ali Patel is one of the last three French detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and his family members say they can't figure out why he's there in the first place.

Cousins of the Indian-born former imam say Patel, 45, was just a victim of bad luck and bad timing who had settled in Afghanistan in the early to mid-1990s — long before the US-led invasion of the country. Patel was one of seven French citizens captured in the US-led campaign that toppled the hardline Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Four have returned to France, and all spent more than two years at Guantanamo.

"As a family, we all believe he was in the wrong place at the wrong time," said one cousin, Luqman Dawod, a British citizen who arrived from Manchester on Wednesday to meet with one of Patel's French lawyers. "We don't believe he has done anything wrong." <snip>

Haroon Patel, another cousin, who runs a convenience store in Manchester, said: "He is not a terrorist, he was a good person." They said they did not know when Patel was detained. <snip>

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1031577.cms