LONDON - A British resident released from Guantanamo Bay after nearly five
years in captivity said Sunday his detention at the US prison camp was
"profoundly difficult" to endure, his first comments since his release.
Bisher al-Rawi is seen in this undated photograph released
April 1, 2007. [Reuters]
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Bisher al-Rawi, a 37-year-old Iraqi national, had been held at the US base in
Cuba since it opened in 2002, but was reunited with his family in south London
this weekend.
British officials have long refused to represent resident foreigners held at
Guantanamo, but took up al-Rawi's case after it was disclosed he had provided
assistance before his detention to MI5 - Britain's domestic spy agency.
Al-Rawi's US lawyer, George Brent Mickum IV, said last year that al-Rawi had
agreed, during one of at least six interviews with British agents at Guantanamo,
to work for the British security service in exchange for his release. Nothing
came of the offer, Mickum said.
Mickum declined to comment on the case Sunday, except to say that al-Rawi "is
delighted to be back home with his family."
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said Thursday al-Rawi's release had been
agreed, but officials and lawyers have not disclosed precisely when the detainee
was freed and flown to Britain.
"After over four years in Guantanamo Bay, my nightmare is finally at an end,"
al-Rawi said in a statement. "I also feel great sorrow for the other nine
British residents who remain prisoners in Guantanamo Bay."
Britain's Foreign Office said only five foreign nationals resident in Britain
are held at the prison camp, in Cuba. Al-Rawi said some detained British
residents had gone on hunger strike to protest their extended solitary
confinement.
"The extreme isolation they are going through is one of the most profoundly
difficult things to endure. I know that all too well," al-Rawi said.
Al-Rawi and another British resident, Jamil el-Banna, were alleged to have
been associated with al-Qaida through their connection with the London-based
radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada. Al-Rawi had lived in Britain since 1985, and
el-Banna was granted refugee status in Britain in 2000.
"The hopelessness you feel in Guantanamo can hardly be described. You are
asked the same questions hundreds of times," al-Rawi said. "Allegations are made
against you that are laughably untrue, but you have no chance to prove them
wrong. There is no trial, no fair legal process."
The two were arrested in 2002 in Gambia while trying to return to Britain
with electronic equipment that authorities described as suspicious. The men's
lawyers claim it was a battery charger.
Their lawyers have said the two were arrested after British intelligence
agents passed on information about their travel plans to the United States.
"Leaving my best friend Jamil el-Banna behind in Guantanamo Bay makes my
freedom bittersweet," al-Rawi said in his statement. "He too should be released
and reunited with his family."
Lawyers claim that after their arrests in 2002, the men ended up in American
custody. From Gambia, the CIA took them on a rendition flight to Cairo, Egypt,
where the plane refueled, then to a CIA facility in Afghanistan, where they were
held and interrogated as suspected terrorists, Mickum has said.
Al-Rawi claimed in his statement that he and el-Banna were held in a CIA
underground prison close to Kabul, before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay.
Lawmaker Edward Davey, who campaigned for al-Rawi's release, said he remained
concerned about the fate of other British residents. "It should alarm everyone
that none has yet faced a trial despite over four years of imprisonment," he
said in a statement.
Davey said the government had "a moral duty to make representations for the
remaining British residents."
The Foreign Office said it was unable to "provide consular or diplomatic
protection to non-British nationals, including those detainees in Guantanamo
Bay," who are former British residents.