Bosnia Ends Abu Hamza's Seven-Year Ordeal

Imad Al-Husin, a Syrian citizen better known as Abu Hamza, was released on Thursday after having been held without trial for more than seven years in the immigration centre of Lukavica, on the periphery of Sarajevo.

"Our father has just returned home after more than seven years," one of his daughters, Nudzejma Softic, wrote on Thursday on Facebook.

"We're very happy to have him back with us," Nudzejma briefly told BIRN, adding that he "just wants to catch up with the time he has not spent with our family" and "doesn't wish to comment on the period he spent in detention".

Abu Hamza was released under a new law on foreigners that Bosnia's parliament approved at the end of 2015, which prevents foreign citizens from being held for more than 18 months.

Abu Hamza arrived in Yugoslavia during the 1980s as a student. During the 1992-5 war in Bosnia he fought in the El Mujahid brigade, later marrying a Bosnian and obtaining citizenship.

However, the authorities arrested him in 2008, suspecting he represented a threat to national security, deprived him of Bosnian citizenship and detained him in the immigration centre pending deportation back to Syria.

His extradition process, however, was blocked by the European Court of Human Rights, which claimed he might become a victim of ill treatment and torture in his country of origin.

The court, however, did not order his release. As a consequence, Abu Hamza remained in detention for more than seven years without trial.

After Bosnia changed its legislation on foreigners, Abu Hamza's liberation was expected, his lawyer, Nedim Kulenovic, told BIRN in a previous interview.

However, Bosnia's Minister of Security, Dragan Mektic, told the media that Bosnia still considered him a...