Shaker Aamer to be released from Guantanamo Bay, returned to the UK

Shaker Aamer, the last British resident held in Guantanamo Bay jail, is to be released to the UK.

“Shaker’s wife and his four British kids have been on a awful emotional rollercoaster over the past almost decade and a half so we really need some clarity around when he’s going to see them again”.

The White House has informed Downing Street that it has decided to return Mr Aamer to the UK.

The government has regularly raised Mr. Aamer’s case with the U.S. authorities and we support President Obama’s commitment to closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.

The Foreign Office says President Barack Obama has told Congress of his decision, and Amer will be returned to Britain once a 30-day notice period has expired.

A British government spokesman confirmed that the United Kingdom had been notified by the US government that it chose to return Aamer.

He was subsequently transferred to Guantanamo Bay where he has been held without charge.

He is alleged to have been a key Britain-based recruiter and financier for the Al-Qaeda militant network and purportedly worked for Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan, according to U.S. military documents.

He said: “It is long overdue”.

Stafford Smith added: “British politicians may bombasticate about our “robust and effective systems to deal with suspected terrorists” but Shaker is not and never has been a terrorist, and has been cleared by the Americans themselves for 8 years”.

Aamer was captured in Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan in December 2001 before being transferred to Guantanamo in Cuba in February 2002, where he has been held ever since.

But Mr Aamer has always maintained his innocence and claimed he was doing charity work.

Moazzam Begg, who was held for almost three years at Guantanamo, said Aamer would struggle to rebuild his life.

He said: “We thought there might be a chance for him to come home, but it just kept getting delayed”.

Amnesty global U.S. executive director Steven W. Hawkins said Friday that Aamer’s case is “a symbol of Guantánamo’s utter failure”.

A HAGLEY doctor who has campaigned tirelessly for the release of the last Brit in Guantánamo Bay has said he’s “over the moon” at the news he is to be released.

Joanne MacInnes, co-ordinator of the “We Stand With Shaker” campaign, said it had been a “long struggle” and it was “amazing news” that he was to be released. “We have got a lot of support to give him when he gets back”.