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Background:
- Binyam Mohamed is a 29 year old Ethiopian who came to the UK in 1994 as an asylum seeker. He lived in Notting Hill, West London, for seven years.
- In June 2001, he travelled to Afghanistan to see whether it was a 'good Islamic country or not'. After 9/11, he left for Pakistan. In April 2002, he tried to return to the UK but was arrested at the airport. For the next three months, he was imprisoned by the Pakistani authorities.
- In July 2002, he was transferred to American custody. The CIA flew him to Morocco where he was held for 18 months, during which time he was subject to torture and gross human rights violations. He eventually confessed to being involved in the 'dirty bomb' plot targeted at the US with Jose Padilla.
- In January 2004, he was rendered to Afghanistan where he was held in Kabul's notorious 'Dark Prison' for five months where he endured further torture. The Americans then took him to Bagram and then Guantánamo Bay in September 2004 where he has been held ever since.
- In November 2005, he was charged with conspiring to plot terror attacks against the US; the evidence for this was procured through torture in Morocco. He had a preliminary hearing in June 2006 but his trial was halted when, later in 2006, the US Supreme Court ruled that the trials were illegal.
- In August 2007, the British government made representations with the American government to have five British residents, including Binyam Mohamed, returned to the UK. The British government does not believe he poses a threat.
- In May 2008, charges were brought against Binyam and he currently faces the prospect of a military tribunal and, if convicted, the death penalty. He is unlikely to receive a fair trial at Guantánamo Bay.
- In recent months, Binyam Mohamed's physical and mental health has deteriorated considerably, to the extent that he has taken to smearing the walls of his cell with his own faeces. He is suffering from severe depression.
Take action!!
Binyam Mohamed has been held in Guantánamo Bay for three and a half years and has been subjected to nearly six years of abuse. He is currently facing a military tribunal at Guantánamo Bay and the death penalty if convicted. He has no hope of receiving a fair trial at Guantánamo according to his lawyers.
Write to the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the Foreign Secretary David Miliband and your own MP:
¨ Tell them that Binyam Mohamed's case is of the utmost urgency. He is close to a complete breakdown and his behaviour, including smearing his excrement on the walls of his cell, demonstrates severe depression. The British government must act on humanitarian grounds to have Binyam released immediately.
¨ The UK government must release information that it has in its possession that show that Binyam was a victim of extraordinary rendition and could lead to his release.
¨ The British government must act at the highest level to ensure that Binyam is released and does not face a military tribunal. Allowing Binyam to face a military trial would be an effective endorsement of the death penalty and would undermine the rule of law.
Sample letter:
Dear Mr Brown/Miliband/ Your own MP
I am writing to you concerning Binyam Mohamed, the London man who is being held at Guantánamo Bay and faces terrorism charges. The suffering this man has endured in six years of illegal detention in Morocco, Afghanistan and Guantánamo is shocking. Anyone with knowledge of even the sketchiest details of his treatment, and having any concern for justice and the rule of law, could feel nothing but revulsion.
News of his being charged after six years, with conspiring to commit terrorism offences in the US, to be tried by military tribunal, and using evidence obtained under extreme, prolonged torture, is of grave concern. In these circumstances, he cannot receive a fair trial.
Furthermore, I am concerned that if convicted Binyam faces the death penalty. By failing to challenge the use of military tribunals, which undermine the rule of law and by standing by while Binyam faces such a trial, the UK would be condoning the death penalty, which we do not allow here.
It is also of deep concern that the UK Government is not willing to defend itself against allegations that it appears to have been complicit in Binyam's rendition and ill treatment, or to comply with his lawyers' request for the release of documents which could aid his case.
I call on the Government to do everything in its power to assist this man in obtaining his full human rights, and ultimately his freedom.
Yours sincerely
Gordon Brown (Prime Minister)
Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 1AA
David Miliband (Foreign Secretary)
Rt. Hon. David Miliband MP
Foreign Secretary,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
King Charles St ,
London SW1A 2AH
Also write to your MP (contact details at www.theyworkforyou. com) and ask them to contact and bring pressure to bear on the Foreign Secretary concerning Binyam Mohamed on your behalf.
London Guantánamo Campaign
3 June 2008
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In the early hours of this morning Reprieve client and Al Jazeera journalist, Sami Al Haj, was finally released from Guantánamo Bay and reunited with his wife and young son in Sudan. Noticeably weak after over six years in US custody – and his 16-month hunger strike – Sami nevertheless spoke up for his fellow prisoners from his hospital bed in Khartoum. He later spoke to Zachary Katznelson, Reprieve’s Senior Counsel, to thank Reprieve and our supporters for their work on his behalf.
For more details Click here |
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 A series of events took place in London this week calling for justice for Guantánamo detainees past and present, and for the detention camp to be closed down, taking in protests outside the Spanish Embassy and Westminster Magistrates’ Court, London Fashion Week and a packed meeting with Moazzam Begg in East London.
On Tuesday 12 February, seven activists from the London Guantánamo Campaign and the Muslim Prisoner Support Group held a lunchtime demonstration outside the Spanish Embassy in Knightsbridge. Peaceful yet vociferous, the message got through to the Embassy staff inside where a meeting was taking place.
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The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the deteriorating health of a Pakistani prisoner detained in a U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay , Cuba . The prisoner is suffering from a serious heart ailment and his health has worsened since he was first imprisoned there in September 2004. The government of Pakistan has not intervened to ensure he is afforded with adequate medical attention. He has been charged for alleged involvement in the September 11 attack but has since not been tried nor produced in court. The prison's medical facilities are inadequate and his request for treatment outside the prison has been denied.
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the Pakistani authorities deceived Americans by extraditing persons who had nothing to do with the events of September 11 to get a handful of dollars.
Iqbal Tamimi – EJN 17 / 2 / 2008
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Iqbal Tamimi / Journalist and Human Rights activist 13 /2 / 2008
Hundreds of families and relatives of Yemeni detainees in Guantanamo demonstrated before the parliament to demand more pressure on the Yemeni and American governments to work to release 104 Yemeni detainees remaining in Guantanamo prison.
The statement was issued by ‘Hood’ the Yemeni human rights organization, which means the vast majority of them in Guantanamo after being released Most of the detainees from other nationalities.
Demonstrators of women, men and children lifted pictures of the detainees and banners boring sentences like(we demand the closure of Guantanamo prison, free our children immediately, we demand the closer of secret prisons in the United States and other areas claiming they were built to counteract terrorism). Two Yemeni human rights organizations, The Hood Organization and the Organization of Alkarama were working for years to help free the prisoners of Guantanamo; they both issued a message to the parliament in which they stated: "The families and relatives of prisoners in Guantanamo demand the closure of all illegal American prisons including the ones in Afghanistan, and Cuba. And they demand the release of all detainees and returning them back to their countries including Yemenis who are definitively the largest number amongst other different nationalities. The letter noted that although many States have received most of its citizens in those prisons, Yemen still has not received but only 17 detainees, four of whom were extradited from secret prisons and 13 were released from Guantanamo, leaving 104 Yemeni detainees in Guantanamo, and two in Bagram prison detained there since six years. The families and relatives of the Yemeni detainees requested of the Yemeni Parliament and the government to make more efforts and pressure on the American government to take serious action regarding the process to release the prisoners.  They called also for the formation of a parliamentary committee to follow up the issues related with the Yemeni prisoners abroad, and finding facts about what has been done by the Yemeni government in this regard. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh called on the United States of America many times to handed over Yemeni detainees in Guantanamo, as well as the detainees Muhammad Ali Almoayyed, and his Mohammed Zayed.
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US Attorney H. Candace Gorman has revealed that her client Abdul Hamid Al-Ghizzawi has been infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Al Ghizzawi believes the infection happened during medical procedures at Guantanamo in 2004 when he was given a blood test which resulted in alarm amongst the hospital staff. Al Ghizzawi was not given any explanation for the alarm at the time. As a result Al-Ghizzawi has now been told that he is suffering from Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Having already been suffering from Hepatitis B and Tuberculosis (which he also acquired at Guantanamo ) Al Ghizzawi has been held in severe isolation in Camp 6.
Gorman filed an emergency application with the US Supreme Court asking that the US military be ordered to treat Al-Ghizzawi’s medical problems and for medical records to be turned over to her. Chief Judge Roberts denied the motion despite it being stated by the chief medical doctor at Guantanamo , Dr Sollock, that Al-Ghizzawi did not suffer from any ill health on arrival to the base. Al-Ghizzawi’s health has rapidly deteriorated and Cageprisoners calls for the immediate release of his medical records so that adequate medical treatment can be given to the detainee. Spokesman for Cageprisoners and former Guantanamo detainee, Moazzam Begg said, “That a man who has endured more than half a decade in the world’s most infamous prison – without charge or trial – is now infected with the world’s most dreaded disease is preposterous. How will the US administration explain this one to his family? More ‘robust interrogation techniques’?” With Al-Ghizzawi’s condition as it is, Candace Gorman made the following plea, “Al-Ghizzawi is an innocent civilian turned over to the Americans in response to a bounty (cash American dollars for Arabs). Al-Ghizzawi has been taken from his wife and young daughter and he will die if he is not given immediate medical care, and yet the American military cannot be bothered… I ask that all of you please contact the American state department and ask them to release this innocent and very ill man.” A double heart-attack of Saifullah Paracha, the death of an Afghan detainee due to cancer and the deaths of four other detainees in Guantanamo all highlight the serious medical difficulties of those being detained. The US administration must put pressure on the public to give full medical treatment to those under its control. However, the medical situation only reiterates the more pressing concern that these men must either be charged for crimes under a system that is recognised to be fair and open, or must be released expeditiously. |
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By Iqbal Tamimi / Journalist and human rights activist 1/2/2008 Informed sources said Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is currently visiting a number of European countries, is seeking the help of European Organization to show more serious efforts to close Guantanamo prison, and release the rest of the detainees in Guantanamo including almost 100 Yemeni prisoners still detained there.
Adnan Farhan Latif, whose photograph is included with this report, is one of the Yemen national who has been at Guantanamo since 2001.
The official sources said that the meeting was held yesterday in Brussels between the Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and European foreign policy coordinator Javier Solana.The spokeswoman for Solana said that the meeting dealt with developments in Yemen and the region and the European Yemeni relations. President Saleh, who is visiting Brussels within his tour to the European Union met with the European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Waldner and a number of European and Belgian parliament members. The sources said Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, met Marie Aezn decisions Organizer for Security and European cooperation on the Guantanamo detainee’s matters, and demanded more serious European efforts to close the jail, and to ensure the speedy release of the 100 Yemeni Guantanamo detainees. American officials said earlier that Yemeni detainees in Guantanamo prison represent the biggest obstacle to the closure of the jail, because the United States does not believe that the Yemeni government will take sufficient action to prevent them from returning to practice terrorism after their release. The Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh demanded in a message sent to President George W. Bush to close Guantanamo jail and return of Yemeni prisoners to their country. |
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USA claims Yemeni prisoners are an impediment to the closure Guantanamo and Yemen deplores such statement By Iqbal Tamimi A Journalist and a Human Rights Activist 27 / 1 / 2008 Yemeni security source expressed their shock after reading some published media statements attributed to American officials in relation to the Yemeni detainees in Guantanamo, saying that these detainees represent the biggest obstacle to the closure of the jail. The Yemeni source confirmed to the Yemeni News Agency (Saba), the falsity of such statements made by American officials, who were said they felt that the Yemeni government would not take sufficient action to prevent the released detainees from returning to practice terrorism after their release. The Yemeni source described such insinuations as not based on proper basis. The source denied such accusations and said: “it is regrettable that Yemen is one of the first countries scorched the brunt of terrorism, and was most affected in terms of its economy losses and national investments." Yemen repeated its demands to close the Guantanamo detention and the extradition of all Yemeni detainees held in this prison and other USA jails, like Guantanamo prisoners Muhammad Ali Almoayyed, and Mohammed Zayed, and others. His Excellency President Ali Abdallah Saleh President of the Republic of Yemen requested of the American President George W. Bush to hand the Yemeni prisoners back to their country, and confirmed the willingness of Yemen to put those prisoners for a trial according to the evidence put forward against them. And he promised all those found guilty after trial according to the evidence submitted against them, will continue serving their sentences in Yemeni jails.
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11th January 2008 By Iqbal Tamimi
In a report published today on the national Saudi Arabian Alriyadh newspaper, The National Human Rights Society in Saudi Arabia called upon President George w Bush during his historical visit to release all the rest of prisoners remained in Guantanamo, and to close the prison for ever, demanding the release of the Saudi prisoner Humaidan Alturki. The announcement was made by the Chair of the society Dr.
Bandar Alhajjar, at a press conference held at Albabotain Cultural Centre.
Dr. Alhajjar explained that the Society is taking the opportunity during President Bush’s visit to the Kingdom to talk about the detained Saudi prisoners at Guantanamo, who were held for more than 5 years without being charged or convicted or stand a trial. Such prolonged detention raised many negative outcomes for them and their families Dr. Alhajjar said.
The Saudi National Society for Human Rights stressed that
this prolonged detention without trial counteracts with the principals and ethics recognised by US law, which was established on justice and freedom and according to International laws.
The Society urged President Bust to release the detainees immediately, to offer them the chance to enrol in a mental rehabilitation program created by the government of Saudi Arabia, hailed on national and international level for its success.
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The National Coalition 
