Omar was held in Guantánamo Bay on evidence that has been shown to be false. A person appearing on a Chechen rebel training videotape seized by the Spanish Government was identified as Omar, even though he insisted that he had never been to Chechnya. However, it was not until lawyers from Reprieve were able to meet with him that we were able to prove that the person portrayed in the video was actually a man called Abu Walid, who died in Chechnya in April 2004. Based on this misidentification, however, Omar had been placed on the list of the top 50 terrorists in the world.
Even though Omar was a long-term refugee in Britain, the British government initially refused to make any representations to the US authorities on his behalf, insisting that he had to apply to Libya for ‘consular assistance.’ Libyan delegates did indeed visit Omar in Guantánamo, where they told him, ‘You have no problems with the US. Your problems are with us.’ One delegate added, ‘You will be brought to judgment in Libya. When we bring you to Libya, I will personally teach you the meaning of this … In here I cannot do anything, but if I meet you [later] I will kill you, if you don’t kill me.’
In August 2007, the British government finally intervened on Jamil’s behalf, requesting his return and that of four other British residents, but his long ordeal did not come to an end on his return to the UK. As the plane carrying him home from Guantanamo landed, both he and his fellow prisoner Jamil El Banna were arrested, following a Spanish extradition request, based on the long-discredited allegation about Omar’s involvement in terrorism.
Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve’s Director, explained on Newsnight that he had tried to encourage a Spanish extradition request as an “elegant way” of getting the men out of Guantánamo, but that the authorities in Madrid had never showed any interest. “The idea now that they want to use this evidence we have proved to be false to take them for further detention is very worrying,” he added.
Omar and Jamil were released on bail on 21 December, but the extradition request was still hanging over them. On 14 February their lawyers – including Clive Stafford Smith – submitted medical reports which analyzed in detail their precarious mental state, revealing that both men were suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
On 3 March, Judge Baltasar Garzón, the Spanish judge responsible for the extradition request, finally agreed to shelve the charges, acknowledging that both men were so damaged by their experiences that their very recovery was “uncertain”, and that as a result they were incapable of defending themselves in any potential trial.
“We are thrilled to hear that Judge Garzón has done the right thing and dropped his request for the extradition of Jamil and Omar,” Zachary Katznelson, Reprieve’s Legal Director, explained. “These men suffered horrors for years at the hands of the United States. They never had a trial of any type, yet they served more than five years in a brutal prison. It is now time to let them rebuild their lives here in the UK – it’s where their families are and it’s where they call home.”
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