Last British Gitmo prisoner released

The USA military will today repatriate 46-year-old Shaker Aamer to the United Kingdom, marking the most high-profile detainee release in the almost 14-year history of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. According to the spokeswoman, Prime Minister David Cameron “welcomes his release and that people should be reassured that everything necessary to ensure public safety – those measures have been put in place”.

Philip Hammond, British foreign secretary, said Aamer, 46, had left the U.S. military base.

Asked about compensation Virginia Moffatt said that there is no money that can equate to this: “His lawyers were very anxious a few years ago about the fact he has lost so much weight from constant hunger strikes, his mental well-being because of his time in solitary, the fact he’s been tortured – all of those things are very, very damaging as well as a loss of your freedom”.

“We hope he won’t be detained by the British authorities on his return and gets the psychological and medical care that he needs to be able to resume his life with his family in London”, Mr Worthington said.

Tooting MP Sadiq Khan has campaigned on behalf of Mr Aamer both as a human rights lawyer prior to becoming an MP and afterwards. As well as U.S. officials, Aamer has said, men claiming to be MI5 officers were present at interrogations during which his head was “repeatedly banged so hard against a wall that it bounced”. A year later he was transferred to Guantanamo Bay accused of aiding Al-Qaeda.

“We welcome his release and continue to support President [Barack] Obama’s commitment to closing the detention facility at Guantanamo”. And the key issue was that, unlike the other British detainees who were released, he was a British resident, not a British citizen.

It was announced in September that Mr Aamer would be released.

A former British resident and Saudi national, Aamer was originally cleared for release in 2007. “Mr. Aamer stated he had refused to provide a retina scan and fingerprints”.

Aamer claims to have suffered sleep deprivation, beatings and humiliation at the hands of American troops while being held at the notorious Bagram Prison north of Kabul.

Still, Feinstein and her colleagues were apparently unaware of Aamer’s plight, despite the widespread media coverage his detention generated.

His release leaves 112 detainees at the military prison, which President Obama has vowed to close before he leaves office.

Born in Saudi Arabia, he once worked as a translator for the U.S. Army in Saudi Arabia, and then settled in London with his British wife. Authorities contend he was training a Taliban unit and had met al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.