HomeLondon Campaign Urgent Action: Binyam Mohamed, 29 year old British resident in Guantánamo Bay
Urgent Action: Binyam Mohamed, 29 year old British resident in Guantánamo Bay
Urgent Action: Binyam Mohamed, 29 year old British resident in Guantánamo Bay 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 December 2007, three of the residents returned to the UK, with a fourth man likely to return to Saudi Arabia. Binyam was not allowed to return as the Americans consider him to still be highly dangerous and intend to prosecute him.
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. No evidence of wrongdoing has been substantiated against him. Write to the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and the Foreign Secretary David Miliband: ¨ 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 get Binyam released immediately. ¨ Ask what they are doing for Binyam Mohamed to secure his return to the UK. At what stage are negotiations for his release and return? ¨ The British government must act on its verbal pledges to have Guantánamo Bay shut down by acting to bring men such as Binyam, who have close links to the UK, back to this country and pressuring the US government to close down this and other illegal prisons in the “war on terror”.
Sample letter: Dear Mr/Ms.
I am writing to you concerning the urgent case of a British resident held in Guantánamo Bay. Binyam Mohamed, a 29 year old British resident of Ethiopian nationality, has been held in Guantánamo Bay since September 2004 and had spent two years before that being “rendered” between illegal American jails in Morocco, Pakistan and Afghanistan where he was tortured into making false confessions. Due to the severe torture and abuse he has faced, Mr. Mohamed is in an extremely poor mental and physical state. A medical report commissioned by his legal representative, Clive Stafford-Smith, has shown that he is suffering from severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The American psychiatrist who prepared the report has stated that he is “reaching the end of his psychological tether”. While your government has acted successfully to return other British residents from Guantánamo Bay and has sought the return of Mr. Mohamed, I am urging you to take immediate and urgent action to intervene in Mr. Mohamed’s case to have him released from Guantánamo Bay and returned to the UK now. I am calling on you to take urgent humanitarian action to prevent Mr. Mohamed’s fragile state deteriorating further. I would like to know at stage negotiations are between the British and American governments to release Mr. Mohamed and exactly what actions the British government is currently taking on his behalf. The UK has a moral and ethical obligation to do whatever it can to have Mr. Mohamed released. Your government has called for the closure of Guantánamo Bay, which is laudable, however it must also act to help close down Guantánamo Bay by allowing men like Binyam Mohamed to be returned to the UK and seek the total closure of this extralegal detention camp by the US government. I look forward to your response. 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
Jacqui Smith (Home Secretary)
Rt. Hon. Jacqui Smith MP
Home Secretary Home Office, 3rd Floor, Peel Building 2 Marsham Street London, SW1P 4DF
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 Campaign 
