Italy arrests Algerian lawyer

(ANSA) - Aosta, August 21 - Officials said Friday Italian police have arrested Algerian human rights activist and lawyer Rachid Mesli at the Swiss-Italy border on an international warrant from Algeria.
    Mesli, who lives in Geneva, is wanted in Algeria on terrorism charges.
    He was arrested last Wednesday at the Great St. Bernard Pass connecting Switzerland to Italy's northern Aosta region while driving into Italy with his wife and one child. Mesli, who has defended Islamist torture victims, has been living as a refugee in Switzerland since 2000 after being arrested in his home country on charges of "abetting terrorism", according to Amnesty International human rights NGO. He was detained and tortured for three years, according to Amnesty.
    In 2004 he co-founded Alkarama (Arabic for Dignity), a Swiss-based human rights NGO assisting all those subjected to, or at risk of, extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture, and arbitrary detention in the Arab world.
    A Turin court of appeals will have to decide whether or not to extradite him.