The first piece I wrote for BIRN was on the ‘Algerian Six’, or the ‘Algerian Group’ as they are known in Bosnia. The six men moved to Bosnia during the early 90s to fight in the conflict or work for Islamic aid organizations deployed to the region. After the Dayton Peace Accords, all six men settled in Bosnia, four marrying Bosnian women and all having permission from the BiH government to remain in the country.

In 2002, US officials in the region suspected the six men (who had not known each other until arrested and detained together) of plotting to bomb US and British embassies in Sarajevo. The Supreme Court of Bosnia conducted an investigation, finding all six men innocent of the charges. Promptly thereafter, the Bosnian Court of Human Rights issued an order that the men not be illegally deported from Bosnia.

The men were released in the middle of the night following the two court orders. They were led by Bosnian prison guards to the central courtyard of the Sarajevo Central Jail and handed over to a mixed force of Bosnian and US forces. The six men were then immediately flown to Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, where they became some of the first detainees to be sent there during America’s War on Terror.

In the US, the case of the Algerian Six made big waves recently. The Supreme Court, in Boumediene v. Bush (a case brought forward on behalf of the six Bosnians), decided that Combatant Status Review Tribunals are not adequate procedures to provide the writ of habeas corpus. This is a major step in resolving questions about the legality of the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay, one that is notably made in the direction of closing the base.

In contrast to this major development in the US, in Bosnia the case of the Algerian Six has made little progress. The BiH government acted illegally by handing over its citizens to the United States against two court orders. Currently, a suit against the BiH government is being made on behalf of the families of the six men at the European Court of Human Rights. The same wonderful lawyers at Wilmer-Hale who took the Bosnians’ case to the US Supreme Court are working in Strasbourg pro bono.

Nonetheless, the damage has been done. The government of BiH seriously wounded the integrity of its Supreme Court and its Court of Human Rights, both cherished elements of the post-war institutions set up by Europe and the US. But beyond this, it has again demonstrated to its citizens that law and human rights are secondary to the politically opportune.