Mustafa Setmarium Naser

Mustafa Nasar was seized in Pakistan in 2005 and handed to US forces.  He was then secretly flown to British Overseas Territory Diego Garcia and almost certainly held there. Since then he has completely disappeared.

Mr Naser was born in Aleppo, Syria on October 27th 1958. He fled Syria in the early 1980s after a challenge to the dictatorship failed. He arrived in Spain in 1985 and in 1988 married Helena, Reprieve's client, in Madrid. Mr Naser subsequently became a Spanish citizen and the couple have four children together.

Mr Naser wrote a number of books and other publications and was viewed as an influential theorist and intellectual in the Islamist movement. Mr Naser and his family moved to the UK in 1995, to Afghanistan in 1999 and then to Pakistan three years later. However, when the situation in Pakistan became too dangerous, Helena and the children moved to Kuwait. Mustafa was to join them, but he before he could do so he disappeared.

Numerous media reports have stated that Mr Naser was arrested by the Pakistani authorities and subsequently handed over to the US authorities. It has been reported that he was transferred to US naval custody in the Chagos Islands (Diego Garcia) in November 2005.

Attempts by NGOs, journalists and Spanish prosecutors to ascertain whether Mr Naser is in US control and/or his whereabouts have all been either ignored or met with a “neither confirm nor deny” response. What is known for certain is that the US government removed Mr Naser from the FBI’s 'Most Wanted' list and its 'Rewards for Justice' list shortly after his reported detention.

Mustafa's family vigorously deny that he had any involvement in terrorism. Helena Moreno’s only wish is that her husband is found and, if the allegations against him are maintained, that he is given a fair and open trial.

Evidence that Naser was held at Diego Garcia:

Reprieve's investigation has revealed several sources that confirm Mr Naser's detention at Diego Garcia including: two recently retired CIA members in private conversation; Judge Balthazar Garzon from Spain (who was investigating Mr Naser) in El Pais newspaper; and Spanish police and Syrian officials off the record. These officials have also said, again off the record, that the Americans handed Mr Naser to them and that he is currently in Syrian custody. If this is true, Mr Naser was rendered to a state known for persecution in violation of the Convention Against Torture.