‘BRING Binyam home! Close Guantanamo Bay!’ chanted over 100 demonstrators at Trafalgar Square yesterday afternoon, before the arrival of US President George W. Bush at Downing Street.
Clive Stafford-Smith of Reprieve said: ‘For reasons best known to themselves, the British government has invited George Bush to Britain today.
‘At the very least, Gordon Brown should be demanding of George Bush that British resident Binyam Mohamed comes home to Britain.
‘Binyam has suffered so much torture at the hands of Bush and his colleagues that at the very least they can end the suffering now.
‘The CIA rendered him from Pakistan to Morocco, where they took a razorblade to his penis, and then he was rendered again to the “Dark Prison’’ in Kabul, where they played music at him at ear-splitting volume.
‘He has been in Guantanamo Bay since September 20, 2004, but in total he’s been in US custody for over six years.’
Stafford-Smith added: ‘Forty-two days without charge is more than any civilised country should allow, but six years is way beyond the pale.’
Former Guantanamo Bay political prisoner Moazzam Begg said: ‘Binyam is held in a place where I was held and Binyam is a British resident who deserves to return to the UK, simply because he is designated for trial by military commission and he is going through that process.
‘The British government called for my return specifically because I was designated for trial by military commission.
‘It is a paradox, because Binyam remains in Guantanamo for the same reason that I was released.
‘The British government had called for his release – but they stopped calling for his release when he was designated for trial by military commission, which is bizarre in contrast to what happened in my case.
‘Binyam is one of several hundred people still held in Guantanamo Bay.
‘He has gone through a process so terrible, it made him look forward to the prospect of Guantanamo before he even got there.’
