Mohamedou Ould Slahi wrote a bestseller about Guantánamo. His dealings with al-Qaeda remained rather taciturn. The end of a burgeoning scandal.
Mohamedou Ould Slahi was a prisoner in Guantánamo for 14 years. He maintains his innocence to this day.NDR/ARD
For weeks, the Mauritanian writer and former Guantánamo prisoner Mohamedou Ould Slahi was criticized for his former affiliation with the terrorist organization Al Qaeda. Now the organizers of the African Book Festival have pulled the ripcord and are taking over the artistic direction of the program this summer. A corresponding amendment has been made to the Capital Cultural Fund for this purpose, according to a press release on Tuesday. “The association wants to prevent the festival from being damaged by the ongoing discussions about the curator,” it says. “In the past few weeks, the peace prize winner, human rights activist and writer Mohamedou Ould Slahi has been exposed to serious but unsubstantiated allegations in the German press and public, which have meanwhile led to numerous attacks on the festival itself.”
The mistake of his life
The Berliner Zeitung also contributed to the critical reporting on the appointment policy of the association InterKontinental eV, which organizes the festival. “Can an ex-terrorist direct a Berlin literature festival?” was the headline above the corresponding text in the newspaper’s online channel. Slahi Houbeini, whose adventurous story was filmed in The Mauretanian (starring Jodie Foster), has never denied his al Qaeda membership. She was the mistake of his life, Slahi has repeatedly asserted. Among the allegations that have never been proven is the recruitment of the attackers on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
What the hell, the horrified writer Ronya Othmann put it a few weeks ago in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper, drove a Berlin literature festival to make a former al-Qaeda member curator. The answer was his bestseller about his time in Guantánamo and the fact that he could never be proven guilty. “We see no reason not to work with him and interpret the current outrage as an expression of German Islamophobia,” was the critics’ harsh defense. In the meantime, the realization should have matured that a somewhat smoother communication strategy is required for the receipt of tax funds. Mohamedou Ould Slahi has never been convicted. But it is also true that his specific al Qaeda activities and connections have always remained his secret.