Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed released
Monday, 23 February 2009 11:11 AM
By politics.co.uk staff
Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed has been released by police after being questioned and detained under the Terrorism Act.
The Metropolitan police said the Ethiopian-born 30-year-old, who has been held at the Cuban base for the last four years, was detained under Schedule Seven Port and Border Controls, contained within the Terrorism Act 2000.
A statement released this evening said Mr Mohamed was detained by officers from the Met's counterterrorism command at RAF Northolt shortly after 13:00 GMT following his return from Cuba.
Police confirmed he was then released at 17:46 GMT after being questioned for almost five hours.
The Home Office has said Mr Mohamed will be given temporary admission into the UK until an official decision is made on whether he can stay permanently.
The 30-year-old is the first Guantanamo detainee to be released since Barack Obama was inaugurated as president of the United States.
In one of the first acts of his presidency he signed an executive order demanding the closure of the camp - a relic of the Bush administration - within 365 days.
Mr Mohamed was cleared for release after a Foreign Office delegation of officials and doctors assessed his physical condition.
Human rights groups had expressed great concern for his mental and physical wellbeing after years of alleged torture and a 13-day hunger strike late last year.
He was first detained in Pakistan in 2002 before being rendered to Morocco and Afghanistan where, according to Mr Mohamed, he was repeatedly tortured by US agents despite the British authorities being aware of his ill-treatment.
In a statement released to coincide with his return he repeated his torture claims.
"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 said.
"For myself, the very worst moment came when I realised in Morocco that the people who were torturing me were receiving questions and materials from British intelligence.
"I have been through an experience that I never thought to encounter in my darkest nightmares.
"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.
"While I want to recover, and put it all as far in the past as I can, I also know I have an obligation to the people who still remain in those torture chambers.
"My own despair was greatest when I thought that everyone had abandoned me. I have a duty to make sure that nobody else is forgotten.
"I have met with British intelligence in Pakistan. I had been open with them. Yet the very people who I had hoped would come to my rescue, I later realised, had allied themselves with my abusers.
"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."
Earlier No 10 sought to downplay the uncertainties surrounding his return.
"Public safety is our top priority," the prime minister's spokesman said.
"The home secretary will take all appropriate measures to maintain national and international security."
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