SARAJEVO, Oct 17 (Hina) - Bosnia-Herzegovina's Council of Ministers will meet its commitments pursuant to a decision by the Bosnian House of Human Rights contesting the lawfulness of the hand-over of four Algerians to the United
States in January this year, Human Rights and Refugees Minister Kresimir Zubak said in Sarajevo on Thursday.
SARAJEVO, Oct 17 (Hina) - Bosnia-Herzegovina's Council of
Ministers will meet its commitments pursuant to a decision by the
Bosnian House of Human Rights contesting the lawfulness of the
hand-over of four Algerians to the United States in January this
year, Human Rights and Refugees Minister Kresimir Zubak said in
Sarajevo on Thursday. #L#
"We will respect the decision of the House of Human Rights
regardless of the fact that it is of a political character," Zubak
told reporters in Sarajevo after a session of the Council of
Ministers which again debated the case of the so-called "Algerian
group".
Four naturalised Bosnian citizens of Algerian and Yemeni origin
were arrested in Sarajevo in the autumn of 2001 on suspicion of
having prepared an attack on the US and British Embassies in the
Bosnian capital.
An investigation which lasted several months failed to turn up
evidence to support such charges but due to their suspicious past
and the fact that they concealed their real identity while applying
for Bosnian citizenship, the four were stripped of it. Following a
hand-over request by the United States, they were handed over to US
authorities on January 17 and transferred to the Guantanamo base in
Cuba, where a number of terrorism suspects are imprisoned.
The defence for the Algerians tried to prevent the hand-over of
their clients, filing, among other things, a complaint to the House
of Human Rights. The body, established in line with the Dayton peace
agreement, represents the supreme judicial institution for human
rights and is composed of seven domestic and eight foreign judges.
Last week the House ruled that the Algerians should not have been
handed over given the fact that they could be sentenced to death in
the USA.
It has been established that by extraditing them Bosnia-
Herzegovina had disregarded its obligations from the European
Convention on Human Rights, so the Council of Ministers and the
Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina have been ordered to pay each man
damages amounting to 10,000 convertible marks, as well as take
measures of consular protection and prevent their being sentenced
to death.
Zubak claims the decision is confusing because it is not clear if
Bosnia has the obligation to protect the Algerians as its own or
foreign citizens. He added that the Council of Ministers would use
its right to appeal the decision and request an explanation of
disputable parts of the ruling.
(hina) rml sb