As a prisoner in Guantanamo, Younes Chekkouri learned about the new group of extremists advancing through Syria and Iraq.
Released after 13 years without charges, and free in his home country for the first time in two decades, the 46-year-old vows not to be among the estimated 2,000 Moroccans who have chosen to join the Daesh group.
“Islam is innocent of this group and its actions,” he says. “They are criminals.”
Other inmates at Guantanamo also followed the news and widely echoed his condemnations of Daesh, he adds.
He and his younger brother, Ridouane Chekkouri, who was released from Guantanamo in 2004, sit alongside each other on the terrace of a cafe in their hometown Safi, recounting — and listening — to their shared stories of torture and abuse.
According to unclassified appeals documents provided to The Associated Press and written by the elder Chekkouri’s lawyers in 2010, “he suffered serious abuse at the hands of the US, in detention in Afghanistan.”
“Part of this involved threats made against his younger brother, Ridouane,” the documents say.
“They would try to use my brother against me,” Younes says, recalling their initial detention in the province of Kandahar in Afghanistan. “They broke his arm,” he adds as Ridouane gazes down.

Source: Arab News