Bring him home now! Petition calls for Guantanamo ‘Briton’ to be freed

A PETITION demanding the release of Shaker Aamer from Bay is launched today by Amnesty International.

The global human rights organisation said the ‘terrible farce’ of his continued detention had gone on too long. Its petition coincides with the 13th anniversary on Sunday of the opening of the infamous US detention facility in Cuba.

Mr Aamer, who has resident status in Britain and whose British wife and four children live in London, has been held there for nearly the whole 13 years without charge.

The petition calls for him to be released and returned to the UK ‘without delay’ and for an immediate investigation into his alle- gations of torture. Supporters have called on David Cameron to raise the issue with President Obama in talks expected later this month. Downing Street says the case has been raised at the ‘highest levels’.

Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said: ‘It’s been 13 shameful years since the US authorities took those first orange-jumpsuited detainees to Guantanamo. Shaker’s been there almost for the duration. We need the UK Government to definitively establish what the blockage over his release actually is – this terrible farce has gone on long enough.’ The release of other Guantanamo inmates in recent weeks has raised hopes Mr Aamer’s detention may soon end. Five former detainees were sent to Kazakhstan at the end of December.

President Obama has pledged to close Guantanamo and there is hope it may yet be emptied by the time he leaves the White House next year. Mr Aamer, 46, has twice been cleared for transfer from the camp. His health has deteriorated and he has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress.

The Saudi citizen was sent to Guantanamo in 2002 after being detained in Afghanistan. The US says he was an ally of Osama bin Laden, a claim he strenuously denies.