Mehdi Muhammad Ghezali	Mehdi Muhammad Ghezali	Mehdi's Father, in a Caged Protest, Stockholm	Mehdi Ghezali	Mehdi Ghezali (left) with father (far right)
Mehdi Ghezali	Mehdi Ghezali	Mehdi	Mehdi Ghezali at a protest in Sweden, 04/07/06

Mehdi Muhammad Ghezali was born in 1979 in Stockholm, Sweden. His father is Algerian and his mother is Finnish. He grew up in the Swedish town of Orebro.

He had a promising career as a footballer ahead of him before being captured.

The Swedish prisoner's father, Halima Ghezali, interviewed by telephone from Orebro, Sweden, said his son, Mehdi, went to Pakistan to study Islamic jurisprudence before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "He had no contact with the Taliban," Mr. Ghezali said. "He is not Al Qaeda."

Swedish intelligence officials who had visited him in Guantanamo told his father that they did not believe Mehdi was involved in any improper behavior or any connection to any illegal groups. "So why is he there so long?" Mr. Ghezali said.