MULTAN A Swedish national named Mehdi-Mohammed 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.
Mehdi-Mohammed Ghezali was arrested with three other Swedes and seven Turks close to the country's northwestern tribal regions, a police officer said Friday. A Pakistani man was also traveling with them, he said.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give out information he judged to be sensitive, AP reported.
He did not know about Ghezali's past activities, but confirmed he was carrying a Swedish passport bearing the name Mehdi-Mohammed Ghezali.
A police document obtained by The Associated Press lists the names of the 12 arrested men, including Ghezali and three other Swedish citizens, including a woman.
The document identified the Pakistani man as a member of a paramilitary force in the northwest.
Ghezali reportedly was part of a group of 156 suspected Al-Qaeda fighters caught while fleeing Afghanistan's Tora Bora Mountains. Ghezali denied any links to Al-Qaeda and was released by the US in 2004.
A spokeswoman at the Foreign Ministry in Stockholm said it had received no information about an arrest.
The 12 foreigners were arrested Aug. 28 in the town of Dera Ghazi Khan. Police said at the time they had entered the country from Iran and were planning to travel to the tribal areas. One was carrying a laptop computer and $10,000.
It was not clear where they were being held.
At the time of the arrests, police did not say there were any Swedish nationals among the group.
Gosta Hulten, the chairman of a Swedish activist group working for the release of prisoners from Guantanamo, told a local newspaper Ghezali's father had told him he spoke to his son several days ago.
'I spoke to Mehdi's father a few hours ago. He said Mehdi called a few days ago from Saudi Arabia where he has been on a pilgrim journey for several weeks,' Hulten, the chairman of the Guantanamo Group, was quoted as telling Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet.
