MULTAN, Pakistan – A Swedish national with the same name as a Swede arrested in Pakistan in 2001 and held for two years at Guantanamo Bay was detained in Pakistan last month on suspicion of links to al-Qaida, a police officer said Friday.
Mehdi-Muhammed Ghezali was arrested with two other Swedes and nine other foreigners close to the country's northwestern tribal regions, the officer said.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give out information he judged to be sensitive.
He did not know about Ghezali's past activities, but confirmed he was carrying a Swedish passport bearing the name Mehdi-Muhammed Ghezali.
Swedish national Mehdi-Muhammed Ghezali was held for more than two years by the United States at its prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after Pakistani authorities arrested him in 2001.
Ghezali reportedly was part of a group of 156 suspected al-Qaida fighters caught while fleeing Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountains.
Ghezali denied any links to al-Qaida and was released by the U.S. in 2004.
A spokeswoman at the Foreign Ministry in Stockholm said it had received no information on the matter.
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