He was transferred to United States military custody and held at Guantanamo Bay detention camp as a suspected enemy combatant from early 2002 to February 14, 2004, the only Spanish citizen to be detained there.
[2] In 2004, the United States allowed his extradition to Spain to face terrorism charges, based on confessions made while in US custody.
Review of the case in an appeal to the Spanish Supreme Court resulted in the conviction being overturned in July 2006, as based on evidence that may have been obtained through torture by American interrogators.
Hamed Abderrahaman Ahmad was born to a Muslim family in Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in North Africa.
Three other detainees indicted with Ahmad were the Moroccan Lahcen Ikassrien, and two legal residents of Britain, Omar Deghayes and Jamil al Banna.
Spanish authorities alleged that these four may have had some involvement, not only with the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, but also with planning the later 2004 Madrid train bombings.
[3]Baltasar Garzón, the most prominent investigative magistrate in Spain,[4] who had requested Ahmad's extradition, discussed the Guantanamo detention camps at a legal conference in late May 2006: A model like Guantánamo is an insult to countries that respect laws.
[8][9][10] Ahmad and the other three men: Lahcen Ikassrien, Jamiel Abdul Latif al Banna and Omar Deghayes, had previously faced charges in Spanish courts, based on confessions they made while in US custody.