Six Frenchmen who returned from a contentious US prison in Guantanamo Bay are set to stand trial in Paris Monday for their alleged terror-related crimes, local media reported on Sunday.
Prosecutors charged five of them with taking training in al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan from 2000 to 2001, and the remaining one with receiving fundamentalist religious training in Afghanistan.
The suspects, who were imprisoned in the Guantanamo detention center after being captured in the US-led military action in Afghanistan in 2001, returned to France in July 2004 and March 2005 separately.
If found guilty, the defendants could face sentences of up to 10 years in prison.
The six, aged between 24 and 38, said that they were abused psychologically and physically in the Guantanamo prison.
The Guantanamo prison, where some 440 people are being jailed, has drawn international attention as most inmates there have been held without trials for years.
US President George W. Bush has vowed to have the prisoners tried and close the facility. However, The US Supreme Court ruled Thursday against Bush's plan for war crime tribunals, saying it is not consistent with both US laws and the Geneva Conventions.
(Xinhua News Agency July 3, 2006)