Sami A., a suspected al-Qaeda-trained bodyguard who once protected Osama Bin Laden, was deported from Germany two weeks ago. A Tunisian judge said no accusations could be made against him at this time.
Image: Getty Images/AFP
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Sami A., an alleged former bodyguard for Osama bin Laden, was released from Tunisian prison on Friday, authorities in the capital Tunis announced.
The 42-year-old Tunisian national was granted provisional release after a judge found that no charges could be brought against him at this time.
"Sami A. appeared today before a magistrate ... who decided on his provisional release as no charge has been filed against him," a prosecution spokesperson said.
Tunisian authorities said they would continue to investigate Sami A. on suspicion of terrorism, during which time he will be barred from leaving the country.
German court fights Sami A. deportation
Sami A.'s had been kept in custody since being deported from Germany at the behest of the Federal Office for Migration two weeks ago.
However, questions remain over the legality of his deportation. A German court last year had initially blocked him from being sent back to Tunisia after it found that he faced "the considerable likelihood" of "torture and inhumane or degrading treatment" if returned.
An administrative court in Gelsenkirchen described his deportation as "grossly illegal" and demanded he be brought back to Germany. It has threatened to slap the immigration authority in Bochum with a €10,000 ($11,700) fine if it fails to return Sami A. by the end of July.
Sami A, who is said to have worked as a Bodyguard to Osama bin LadenImage: Youtube/spiegeltv
However, according to the Tunisian government, there have been no efforts on Berlin's part to have him brought back to Germany.
In 2012, German authorities admitted that Sami A. had been living in the city of Bochum for more than decade where, according to reports, he collected almost €1,200 a month in welfare.
According German anti-terror officials, Sami A. is considered a threat although it has never been proven that he was a member of al-Qaeda or any other terrorist group.
Editor's note: Deutsche Welle follows the German press code, which stresses the importance of protecting the privacy of suspected criminals or victims and obliges us to refrain from revealing full names in such cases.
Deportations from Germany to Afghanistan
Mid-December 2016 saw the first collective deportation of 34 rejected Afghan asylum seekers from Germany to Kabul – the first of many. Germany halted the flights in late May 2017, but has now restarted them.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Balk
By the planeload
On September 12, 2017, a flight left Germany's Düsseldorf airport for Afghanistan, carrying 15 rejected asylum seekers in what is the first group deportation to the country since a deadly car bomb blast near the German embassy in Kabul in late May. The opposition Greens and Left party slammed the resumption of deportations to Afghanistan as "cynical."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Roessler
Fighting for a chance
In March 2017, high school students in Cottbus made headlines with a campaign to save three Afghan classmates from deportation. They demonstrated, collected signatures for a petition and raised money for an attorney to contest the teens' asylum rejections - safe in the knowledge that their friends, among them Wali (above), can not be deported as long as proceedings continue.
Image: DW/S.Petersmann
'Kabul is not safe'
"Headed toward deadly peril," this sign reads at a demonstration in Munich airport in February. Protesters often show up at German airports where the deportations take place. Several collective deportations left Germany in December 2016, and between January and May 2017. Protesters believe that Afghanistan is too dangerous for refugees to return.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Balk
From Würzburg to Kabul
Badam Haidari, in his mid-30s, spent seven years in Germany before he was deported to Afghanistan in January 2017. He had previously worked for USAID in Afghanistan and fled the Taliban, whom he still fears years later – hoping that he will be able to return to Germany after all.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C.F. Röhrs
Persecuted minorities
In January of the same year, officials deported Afghan Hindu Samir Narang from Hamburg, where he had lived with his family for four years. Afghanistan, the young man told German public radio, "is not safe." Minorities from Afghanistan who return because asylum is denied face religious persecution in the Muslim country. Deportation to Afghanistan is "life-threatening" to Samir, says change.org.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/H. Wiedl
Reluctant returnees
Rejected asylum seekers deported from Germany to Kabul, with 20 euros in their pockets from the German authorities to tide them over at the start, can turn to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for assistance. Funded by the German Foreign Office, members of the IPSO international psychosocial organization counsel the returnees.
