Reprieve Welcomes Imminent Return of British Guantanamo Prisoners
Reprieve calls for resistance to US smear campaign
Saturday December 8th: Today Reprieve welcomes the fact that three British Residents, all Reprieve clients, are soon to be returned to Britain.
Reprieve represents 35 prisoners held without charge or trial in Guantanamo Bay.
However, Reprieve tempers this good news with fears that the U.S. military, having held the three men - Jamil el Banna, Omar Deghayes and Abdennour Sameur - without fair trial for almost six years, now seeks to smear them in the British media.
Reprieve Legal Director, Clive Stafford Smith explained: “In August 2007, the UK government executed a welcome change in the unconscionable Blair policy of doing nothing to help British residents imprisoned in Guantanamo and agreed to bring them home. But there is nothing fair about what the US military did next.
The Pentagon and the Department of State (DOS) invited the BBC for a ‘briefing’ on September 13, 2007: the start of the smear campaign. The US officials read their claims from papers that they would not share with the BBC. They told the BBC the information was “off the record” and that the BBC could not run it past the men’s lawyers. They refused to identify what secret evidence they had in support of the smears. And they made statements that were demonstrably false.
Reprieve will not repeat the Pentagon smear list, as it is defamatory. Suffice it to say that US officials continue to claim that Omar Deghayes was a Chechen rebel, a fact that the BBC proved false two and a half years ago.“
Stafford Smith continued: “These three men pose no more threat to British security than the other ten who have now been home for three years without any incident. The official US smear campaign being conducted against our three clients now is simply defamatory. If the US has any evidence to present, let it be done in a fair trial. Bring it on. We would welcome that and we would prove it false. Anyone who asserts that these men are dangerous should remember that the British way is to present evidence at a fair trial.”
The three men to be returned are:
Jamil el Banna who was cleared for release six months ago. The Pentagon cannot have it both ways – he cannot be ‘cleared’ and simultaneously a threat. The US today says he was “picked up in armed conflict”. In truth, he was seized in the Gambia where he had gone with Bisher al Rawi on a provably innocent trip to establish a peanut processing plant. It is wonderful news that he will finally be allowed back with his wife and five British children.
Omar Deghayes, who lived in Brighton for 20 years. US officials continue to say that Omar Deghayes was a Chechen rebel, allegations that Reprieve has proved to be false. Indeed, in March 2005 the BBC exposed the fact that the Spanish video that was meant to show Omar brandishing a Kalashnikov was actually Abu Walid, a Chechen rebel who has been dead for 3 years. Still the US makes this allegation.
Abdennour Sameur, the third British resident, who has consistently insisted on his innocence.
As Lawyers to all three men, Reprieve has agreed to voluntary security arrangements prior to their return to Britain, simply because they have nothing to hide and want to be home with their children.
Stafford-Smith went on: “The battle for justice is not over. A fourth British resident, Binyam Mohamed, will remain in Guantanamo. Mr. Mohamed was taken by the CIA to Morocco and tortured with a razor blade to his penis. It is significant that just this week it has come out that the CIA has been destroying pictures of torture. Only in the Middle Ages was it considered acceptable for governments to try people with secret evidence tortured out of them. The British government must press harder to bring Mr. Mohamed home.
“Likewise, the UK government has not yet agreed to receive other British residents home. Ahmed Bel Bacha, who lived in Bournemouth, has been cleared for release but would face persecution in Algeria. We may soon lose our struggle in the US to save him from persecution, and it is vital that the British government agrees to take him back, before he is sent to the torture chambers of Algeria."
~Ends~
For interviews or further information please contact the Reprieve Press Office on: 07796130854, 07766017985, 07703291139.
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