Justice! Guantanamo Briton set to be freed
BRITAIN’S last detainee in Guantanamo Bay is finally coming home after a Daily Mail campaign for justice.
After a grotesque ordeal lasting 14 years, Shaker Aamer has been told he will be released from the notorious military prison within a month.
The US has bowed to mounting pressure to free the 48-year-old terror suspect, who has languished behind bars without charge or trial since February 2002.
The surprise announcement yesterday represents a victory for the Mail’s tireless campaign for the father-of-four’s release.
Mr Aamer’s jubilant family last night thanked the newspaper for its ‘huge contribution’ in securing his freedom.
His father-in-law, Saeed Siddique, 72, said the paper’s campaign had been an important factor in persuading the US authorities to release him. Speaking from a joyful family gathering at his daughter Zineera’s home in Battersea, South London, he said: ‘We appreciate so much all the support we have received from the Daily Mail. Your many articles have made a huge contribution. They have been very, very helpful by bringing attention to the injustice he has suffered.’
A US State Department source confirmed the Mail’s campaign had been a significant factor in the decision to release Mr Aamer.
‘It mattered. It absolutely made a difference,’ the source said.
Mr Aamer, who claims he has been abused in the presence of British security agents, is in line for a compensation payment of up to £1 million. Similar sums were given to British detainees of Guantanamo in 2010, to settle damages claims over their mistreatment.
Mr Aamer’s daughter Johina, 17, tweeted: ‘Thank you everyone for all the support. We can’t believe we might finally see our dad.’
President Barack Obama informed David Cameron of the decision to release Mr Aamer during a phone call on Thursday night.
US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter signed off the transfer following a ‘thorough review of his case and taking into consideration the robust security assurances that will be provided by the British Government’.
The decision to release Mr Aamer follows high-level lobbying by the Government. In January, Mr Cameron won plaudits when President Obama vowed to ‘prioritise’ the terror suspect’s release following top-level talks at the White House.
The Government stressed it had ‘one of the most effective systems in the world to deal with suspected terrorists and those suspected of engaging in terrorist-related activity and we will continue to do all we can to protect people from the threat of terrorism’.
Clive Stafford Smith, director of legal charity Reprieve and Mr Aamer’s lawyer in the UK, said his return was great news – ‘albeit about 13 years too late’. He said the UK must urge the US to put the captive ‘on a plane tomorrow’, adding: ‘Shaker is not and never has been a terrorist.’
Former Tory Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell, who joined a cross-party delegation of MPs to Washington calling for Mr Aamer’s release, said: ‘Credit is due to the Daily Mail who alone among the British Press took a firm and principled stance on this issue.’
In 2001, Saudi-born Mr Aamer was detained in Afghanistan while doing voluntary work for an Islamic charity, his supporters say.
US intelligence claimed he financed AlQaeda and was a key aide of Osama bin Laden, an accusation he denied.
The Mail has always acknowledged that Mr Aamer has questions to answer over what he was doing in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan when he was first detained. But we argued it was an affront to justice and the rule of law that he was denied a trial in which the charges made against him could be tested.
THE TORTURE FILES