Shaker Aamer, imprisoned by the United States without charge or trial for 13 years, is said to be one of 64 prisoners who have been cleared for release early in 2015.
Stephanie Linning
The last British resident still detained at Guantanamo Bay Bay could by freed in the new year as part of a fresh push by President Obama to empty the prison, it has been reported.
Shaker Aamer, whose family lives in South London, has been detained at the US base in Cuba without trial or charge since November 2001. It is understood that he is one of 64 prisoners who have been cleared for release and will be released in the next couple of months.
Insiders from within the Obama administration indicated earlier this week that the president would like to reduce the number of prisoners at the camp from 132 to 68 as soon as possible.
And Mr Aamer, 46, is among those who will be freed, the Sunday Times has reported. Clive Stafford Smith, Mr Aamer’s lawyer, told the newspaper that he believes his client will be returned to Britain.
He said: ‘I cannot believe they will not include Shaker, as it would be totally irrational. It’s very hard for them to come up with an explanation as to why this hasn’t been done’.
There had been debate as to whether Mr Aamer, who is a Saudi Arabian citizen, would be able to return to Britain, but prime minister David Cameron has said that he will accept him back.
The move to release more prisoners is the latest step in the president’s gradual push to close the facility by the time he leaves office in 2017. There has been a recent trickle of releases. The Pentagon said last week that four Afghans held for over a decade at Guantanamo have been returned to their home country. And six prisoners were transferred to Uruguay earlier this month.
Guantanamo was opened by Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, to house terrorism suspects rounded up overseas. Most of the detainees have been held for a decade or more without being charged or tried.
In a shocking revelation written in the Daily Mail earlier this month, Mr Aamer said that he has been beaten and starved of sleep and food while being held at Guantanamo Bay.
Lawyers say he is still being held at the US base in Cuba only because intelligence officials fear he will expose more evidence of torture by the West.
Mr Aamer claims he was in the room when a detainee called Ibn Sheikh al-Libi was being abused in the presence of British intelligence officers.
The CIA said Shaker Aamer aroused suspicion because he had moved to Taliban-held Afghanistan with his family and was arrested there in mysterious circumstances after the regime fell in November 2001. He insisted that he was in Afghanistan to work for an Islamic charity.
Earlier this month, celebrities, civil rights campaigners and politicians called for Barack Obama to secure the release of Mr Aamer in an open letter.
Organised by the We Stand With Shaker campaign, the letter has been signed by MPs from across the political spectrum, including former Tory shadow home secretary David Davis, Lib Dem MP and former Home Office minister Norman Baker, and Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn. Celebrity backers include Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, TV presenter Janet Ellis and her singer daughter Sophie Ellis-Bextor, and the actress Juliet Stevenson.
It was also signed by journalist and author Peter Oborne, poet Benjamin Zephaniah, and novelist Gillian Slovo as well as prominent human rights campaigners including the Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti.
Source: Daily Mail
