PARIS – A former prisoner at Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay says he was prevented from boarding a Canadian-bound flight in France because the aircraft would fly through American airspace.
Mourad Benchellali was invited to address a conference on youth radicalization in Montreal.
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Benchellali, who encourages youth groups in Europe not to join the Islamic State or other groups waging holy war in Syria and Iraq, was not allowed to board the Air Transat flight from Lyon to Montreal.
Air Transat says because of the jet’s flight plan, it had to apply the provisions of a U-S security program known as Secure Flight — a program that checks passengers against the U.S. No Fly
list.
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Benchellali was released from the U.S. naval base in 2004, and says he was not aware he was on the list.
He has flown to other destinations in Europe and beyond, but this was the first time he planned a trans-Atlantic flight.
Airlines can opt to rebook a passenger to a flight that doesn’t cross U.S. airspace, re-route the flight to make sure it doesn’t come into American airspace or cancel the passenger’s ticket.
Conference organizers expressed shock that Benchellali was banned from his flight.
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