Binyam Mohamed coming home
Friday, 20 February 2009 6:17 PM
By politics.co.uk staff
Binyam Mohamed, the last British resident to be held at Guantanamo Bay, is to be released and return to the UK.
The Foreign Office said Mr Mohamed would board a flight for the UK "as soon as the practical arrangements can be made".
"This result follows recent discussions between the British and US governments and a medical assessment, undertaken by a UK doctor, that Mr Mohamed is medically fit to return," foreign secretary David Miliband said.
Mr Mohamed has been held at Guantanamo since 2004. He claims he was detained in Pakistan before becoming the victim of extraordinary rendition and tortured extensively in Morocco and Afghanistan.
"The UK government requested the release and return of all former legal UK residents detained at Guantanamo Bay in August 2007," Mr Miliband continued.
"The home secretary and I took this decision in light of work by the US government to reduce the number of those detained at Guantanamo with the aim of closing the facility and our wish to offer practical and concrete support to those efforts. In reaching this decision we gave full consideration to the need to maintain national security and the government's overriding responsibilities in this regard.
"Mr Mohamed's return does not constitute a commitment by the home secretary that he may remain permanently in the UK. His immigration status will be reviewed following his return and the same security considerations will apply to him as would apply to any other foreign national in this country. As always, all appropriate steps will be taken to protect national security."
The Ethiopian-born 30-year-old, granted asylum in the UK in the 1990s, has found himself at the centre of a human rights storm in Westminster after the British government was accused of complicity in his torture.
"This is truly wonderful news for Binyam Mohamed, who wants nothing more to return to normal life in Britain," said Reprieve director Clive Stafford Smith.
"The Foreign Office have worked long and hard to secure Binyam's release from Guantanamo Bay. We thank them for their efforts on Binyam's behalf and to those in the Obama administration who assisted them."
The Liberal Democrats welcomed his return but warned he could be a crucial sourc eof information about allegations of British government complicity in his torture and interrogation.
Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Edward Davey said: "Binyam Mohamed's release from Guantanamo Bay is long overdue. To be imprisoned for seven years without charge or trial is bad enough, but to suffer torture and degradation as he has is unacceptable.
"With Mr Mohamed back in the UK, the government will have to come clean over any British role in his alleged rendition and torture.
He continued: "If Mr Mohamed's allegations are true, as is widely suspected, then he will not only be a victim of illegal rendition and torture, but a crucial witness to a grave crime and a damaging cover-up by the American government and possibly the British government too.
"The attorney general has a huge responsibility on her shoulders. There can be no political influence into the direction of this investigation. Britain's international reputation is on the line. The only way we can move forward is through open justice."
High court rulings have instructed the government to disclosed 42 documents rumoured to confirm claims that UK security agents were aware of Mr Mohamed's treatment from American, Moroccan and Afghanistan torturers; going as far as to provide them with information for his interrogation.
Mr Miliband strongly denied the claims in parliament, but did insist that the Pentagon had warned disclosure of the documents - already presented to Mr Mohamed's legal team - could threaten intelligence cooperation between the two countries.
It later emerged that the foreign secretary had solicited a letter from the American authorities requesting this in writing.
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