An undated handout photo released by Reprieve UK shows Shaker Aamer, the last British resident held at Guantanamo Bay who will be released by the U.S. to Br
Shaker Aamer
Wikipedia
U.K. Detainee Shaker Aamer to Be Released From Guantanamo
Former charity volunteer in Afghanistan has been held in U.S. facility since February 2002
itain after over 13 years at the detention facility. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
LONDON—The last British resident being held in Guantanamo Bay will be released and returned to the U.K., the British government said Friday.
“We have been notified by the U.S. government that it has decided to release Shaker Aamer to the U.K.,” a British government spokesman said. “The government has regularly raised Mr. Aamer’s case with the U.S. authorities and we support PresidentObama’s commitment to closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.”
Mr. Aamer was first cleared for release in 2007 but had continued to remain in custody. Prime Minister David Cameron raised the matter during a meeting in January with President Barack Obama, after which a White House spokesman said the administration had agreed to “prioritize” Mr. Aamer’s transfer. In March, Parliament voted to demand his return to the U.K.
Mr. Aamer’s U.K.-based lawyer, Clive Stafford-Smith, said the release of his client was “great news, albeit about 13 years too late.”
“He should be on a plane tomorrow, so that Shaker’s family do not have to endure more of the agony of waiting, uncertain every time a phone rings,” Mr. Stafford-Smith said.
Mr. Aamer, a Saudi citizen, moved in 1996 to Britain, where he worked as a translator for a legal firm. He later met and married a British woman, which entitled him to British resident status.
He was volunteering for a charity in Afghanistan in 2001 when he was arrested by U.S. forces, which had arrived in the country in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks to oust the Taliban and pursue al Qaeda.
His lawyers said he was kidnapped and sold for a bounty to the coalition, who extracted a false confession out of him under duress. In February 2002, he was transferred to Guantanamo Bay.
In Britain, Mr. Aamer’s cause has been taken up by campaigners across the political spectrum. Demonstrations in support of Mr. Aamer have been an occasional feature of public life; in the spring, Birmingham neurologist David Nicholl ran the London Marathon dressed in an orange jump suit mimicking the outfit worn by Guantanamo inmates in a bid to draw attention to Mr. Aamer’s cause.
Moazzam Begg, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who was released in 2005 and is now an outspoken civil-rights activist on behalf of British Muslims, welcomed the news.
“What he endured is beyond comprehension for most people in the U.K. There is no escaping the story of Shaker Aamer and those who instigated his mistreatment. This will be a black page in the history of the U.K. and U.S.,” said Mr. Begg.
The other 15 British citizens and residents held at Guantanamo have all been sent back to the U.K. Former U.S. President George W. Bush intervened in that prosecution and returned the detainees to Britain at the request of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair.
