UK Detainee Shaker Aamer to Be Released From Guantanamo

“While today’s decision to transfer Aamer is good news, it is unacceptable that the administration continues to drag its feet on transferring cleared detainees”. What he endured is beyond comprehension for most people in the UK.

According to his lawyers, Aamer was abducted by bounty hunters in Afghanistan in 2001 and handed over to US forces, who transferred him to Guantánamo Bay two months later.

The senior Conservative David Davis – who was among the MPs demanding his release – said it was “long overdue”. I personally know his children and it’s been very hard.

At Guantanamo, the prison authorities came to the conclusion that Aamer had once been close to Osama bin Laden.

Mr Aamer is now expected to be returned to Britain within 30 days.

Aamer’s lawyers have said he has suffered frightful abuse over the years, including beatings, being hanged from his wrist and prolonged periods of solitary confinement – even after he was cleared for release.

“Shaker has been subjected to nearly 14 years without charge or trial in Guantanamo”, he told the BBC. In 2005, he lost half his body weight during a hunger strike.

“It’s fantastic news for us”, MacInnes continued. Shaker Aamer began shouting from his cell as the journalists filmed outside. “Either you leave us to die in peace or either tell the world the truth”. However, the jail gates didn’t swing open.

“What we want most is to have our dad home so that we can be a family and so that my mum can finally be with him… we all hope that he is released soon so that we can be a normal family again”. “We must now make sure that Shaker is able to have the time to recover from all his years of isolation and torture without too much media intrusion”.

A succession of British foreign secretaries have raised the case with Washington, backed by parliamentarians, human rights groups and justice campaigners.

Since 2007 the Saudi national has been cleared for release twice by presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama.

Why he is getting out now, and what happens to him next, is simply unclear.

Stuart Mckay, 34, who lives in Wandle Way, where Mr Aamer’s father-in-law is believed to live said: “That sort of thing is condemned by the West and we are going and doing exactly the same thing”. Britain is one of the United States’ strongest allies who has supported efforts to close the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, the official said.

The government paid seven-figure sums to 16 former Guantanamo detainees in 2010 rather than contest legal battles which could have required disclosure of intelligence information.