FORMER Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg offered to help the British government in securing the release of hostage Alan Henning from Islamic State (IS) but was refused.
Begg, who is the Outreach Director for advocacy organisation CAGE, said he thought he knew who had been holding the aid worker and that Henning’s friends had sought his help but said the government, ‘demonised and criminalised me, simply refused to look at anything to do with what I was about’.
In a statement released yesterday Cage said: ‘The view that the British government should have done more to secure the release of Alan Henning is today compounded by revelations from CAGE that the government squandered an opportunity to secure his release when they arrested Moazzam Begg and targeted advocacy organisation CAGE earlier this year.
Begg said: ‘The government has known that I have been trying to secure Alan Henning’s release since January, yet they didn’t take up my offer of help until last month when news of Alan Henning became public knowledge.
‘By needlessly imprisoning me and ignoring my requests for help, the government arguably threw away the best possible chance of getting this man released.’
CAGE Director, Dr Adnan Siddiqui, said: ‘We offer our deepest condolences and support to his (Henning’s) family and count ourselves as his friends.
‘Begg’s politically motivated arrest was a squandered opportunity to secure Henning’s release.
‘CAGE, represented by Moazzam Begg, approached the FCO to inform them that it was prepared to get involved in high level negotiations with Alan Henning’s captors to secure his release up to a week before Moazzam Begg’s arrest.
‘One can only speculate that Alan may have been free if Moazzam had not been incarcerated for 7 months and was able to continue his work in Syria.
‘IS were his executioners but the UK government needs to be open and transparent about its role in Alan Henning’s death as it has directly obstructed some of the avenues that could have secured his release including the politically motivated removal of Moazzam Begg’s passport and the freezing of his personal accounts and those of CAGE.’
CAGE said it will be publishing more details on this development in the near future.
