| Reprieve Welcomes Imminent Return of Its Client, British Resident Bisher Al Rawi, from Guantanamo Bay
British Government Job Not Done – Reprieve Calls for Return of 9 Remaining British Prisoners
29.03.07
This afternoon Reprieve welcomes the imminent return of its client, Bisher Al Rawi, a British resident held in Guantanamo Bay since February 2002. Reprieve has represented Bisher in the US Courts since 2004 and Reprieve attorneys have visited him numerous times in Guantanamo Bay. Bisher and his family fled Iraq to England in 1984 after Bisher’s father was imprisoned and tortured by Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Bisher Al Rawi is one of 10 British residents held in Guantanamo. Not one has had a trial. Two have been cleared for release – but the British government is refusing to allow them back.
Reprieve Senior Counsel Zachary Katznelson, who visited Bisher in Guantanamo four times and is the last person in the UK to have seen him, said:
“We are grateful for British government efforts to secure Bisher’s release from the black hole of Guantanamo Bay. However, the British government’s job is not done. Nine other British residents remain in the hellish conditions of Guantanamo Bay. I have seen the prison with my own eyes and it is brutal. All but one are kept in constant isolation, living in six by eight foot steel cells, with no windows and unrelenting electric light. One has been on hunger strike for over 100 days –tied down and force-fed twice a day. Just like Bisher, none of them are charged with a crime. Not one has had a trial. Justice demands that they be brought home too.
Bisher’s return makes one thing clear: the British government can absolutely intervene, successfully, on behalf of the British residents in Guantanamo. They should do the same for all the other men, men like Jamil El Banna, Bisher’s best friend held on substantially the same allegations as Bisher, and Shaker Aamer, the father of four British children, now on hunger strike for 114 days.”
Two of the other British residents, Saiid Farhi and Mohammed Al Qadir, have asked for Reprieve to take on their cases, but the US Military refuses to provide Reprieve access. Reprieve calls on the British government to ensure that these men at least have legal counsel.
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