Free last Briton in Guantanamo before he loses his sanity, says lawyer
First medical report in decade reveals shocking state of prisoner’s health
SHAKER AAMER, the last British prisoner to be held at Guantanamo Bay, is suffering a range of devastating mental and physical illnesses as a result of his illegal 13-year detention, his lawyer has revealed.
Professor Ramzi Kassem says that being shackled, tortured and abused had left the Londoner suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and paranoia – as well swellings, debilitating headaches and untreated asthma.
The law professor, who represents Aamer in his fight with the American authorities, says that his frail and deteriorating condition means it is now urgent that Aamer be released and reunited with his wife and children in London.
Aamer, who was held over terrorism claims, has been cleared for release from Guantanamo, the Cuban detention centre. Yet the Americans refuse to grant his freedom or to give a reason.
Kassem, a professor at City University New York, told The Mail on Sunday that Shaker’s health problems ‘will likely span many years, if not his lifetime’.
The diagnosis was the result of Aamer’s first medical examination for a decade, which also found he was suffering from SHU Syndrome, an anxiety or psychosis commonly detected among prisoners who have spent too long in solitary confinement, or the ‘Special Housing Unit’ in US penal language.
Aamer, 46, has become a cause celebre, with David Cameron pressing Barack Obama to release him during a White House meeting earlier this year. He has been imprisoned since Valentine’s Day 2002, without ever being charged or standing trial. Frequent promises to free him have never been fulfilled.
Prof Kassem has had more access than most to the father of four, who insisted he had been doing voluntary work for an Islamic charity when he was abducted in Afghanistan and sold to the US military for a £3,200 bounty in 2001 before being taken to Guantanamo. US intelligence sources claimed he worked with Al Qaeda, despite his furious denials. No evidence has ever been produced.
Prof Kassem, who has made 37 visits to Guantanamo and who petitioned the US federal court for the medical examination, outlined a daily routine so horrific that Aamer deliberately rebels in order to stay sane, staging hunger strikes or sit-ins.
He said that prisoners judged to be ‘non-compliant’ are physically assaulted by the guards, deprived of blankets in the Arctic air-conditioning of the camp and forced into solitary confinement.
‘At Guantanamo, in addition to brutal questioning, he has endured endless years in solitary confinement, which is supposed to be used only sparingly if at all by prison authorities, because of the rapid deterioration it can bring about in a prisoner’s mental health,’ he said.
‘Even everyday procedures are calculated to inflict maximum pain and humiliation. Compounding the stress on Shaker’s psyche is the sheer absurdity of his present predicament. He was cleared for release by a US military panel in 2 2007, then in 2009, but continues to languish at Guantanamo today, kept prisoner for reasons the American authorities refuse to disclose.’
Yet Prof Kassem, who will see Aamer again in ten days time, said his spirit remained unbroken, and he thanked those who campaign for his release.