Guantanamo detainee back in Britain
An Ethiopian-born former British resident -- has
returned to Britain after being released from
Guantanamo Bay
23 February, 2009
LONDON (AFP) – Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian-born former British resident, returned to Britain from the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay on Monday, alleging he had been "tortured in medieval ways".
His transfer from Guantanamo is the first under new US President Barack Obama, who ordered the closure of the "war on terror" prison on Cuba two days after taking office on January 20.
Dressed in casual clothes, Mohamed landed in a small plane at RAF Northolt airbase in northwest London and was escorted across the runway by officials.
On arrival, he was detained by police officers under anti-terror laws but was not arrested.
"Police are conducting investigations into his case. Their inquiries are being carried out, as they must be, strictly in accordance with UK law," Scotland Yard said.
The 30-year-old said in a statement released through his lawyers that he was "not asking for vengeance -- only that the truth should be made known" as he alleged that British officials had colluded with his "abusers".
Mohamed has been in custody since 2002 but could face further detention in Britain while his immigration and security status is established, with deportation to Ethiopia possible.
He was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 before being taken to Morocco and Afghanistan, and then on to Guantanamo Bay, where he spent more than four years.
He was suspected of attending an Al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and of plotting to build a radioactive "dirty bomb", but was never charged.
The British Foreign Office has stressed that his return does not imply he will be allowed to remain in Britain.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said Sunday that Mohamed would be granted temporary admission and his immigration status would then be considered in detail.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "We have got to look at the details of the arrangements, but... we will do everything in our power to protect the security of people in our country and the home secretary will take whatever action is necessary."
Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he was "pleased" with Mohamed's return, which followed "intensive negotiations" with Washington.
In his statement, Mohamed said he was "neither physically nor mentally capable" of facing the media.
"I have been through an experience that I never thought to encounter in my darkest nightmares," he said.
"Before this ordeal, 'torture' was an abstract word to me. I could never have imagined that I would be its victim.
"It is still difficult for me to believe that I was abducted, hauled from one country to the next, and tortured in medieval ways -- all orchestrated by the United States government...
"And I have to say, more in sadness than in anger, that many have been complicit in my own horrors over the past seven years."
He alleged that British officials had questioned him in Pakistan and that evidence was then used by "the people who were torturing me".
"The very worst moment came when I realised... the very people who I had hoped would come to my rescue, I later realised, had allied themselves with my abusers," he said.
"I am not asking for vengeance; only that the truth should be made known, so that nobody in the future should have to endure what I have endured."
Mohamed's sister Zuhra, who had travelled to London to greet her brother, said: "I am so glad and so happy, more than words can express."
His lawyer Clive Stafford Smith expects the government to immediately grant Mohamed his freedom.
"He is a victim who has suffered more than any human being should ever suffer," he said.
All nine British nationals held in Guantanamo were released in 2004 and 2005. Of the six British residents, four were released in 2007.
Following Mohamed's release, the one British resident remaining in the detention camp is Shaker Aamer.
"We have requested from the US an offer of release and return (for Aamer) but the US government has so far declined to agree on his return to the UK," a Foreign Office spokesman told AFP.