Detainee has traveled internationally on false documents and is associated with al Qaeda terrorist cells in the US.
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A US official said the British authorities will continue to monitor Aamer. “We have been ignored, locked up in the middle of the ocean”.
But U.S. authorities have today reportedly released him. Serious questions remain over the circumstances of his detention and why he was for so long denied repatriation to the United Kingdom despite – if taken at face value – the long protestations of the British government of his imprisonment.
WIDNEY BROWN: Yeah, first to say, Shaker Aamer’s experiences just are an endless story of human rights violations, from his detention, arbitrary detention, prolonged detention, no due process for trial protections.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeted: “Great news”.
“Together we secured this particular piece of justice”.
After Waters saw a letter Aamer wrote in which he quoted lyrics from the Pink Floyd album The Wall, Waters filmed a video in which he read the letter and discussed Aamer’s case. But Aamer has maintained he was in Afghanistan with his family doing charity work. Smith notes that Aamer had been cleared for release by the administration of President George W. Bush in June 2007. “I think we’ll have a good proposal, and I think we’re hoping it wins the support that it needs in Congress, so that we can move forward”. We are talking about four children the youngest of which wasn’t born until after he was incarcerated.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell, chair of the Shaker Aamer All-Party Parliamentary Group, said: “I am delighted to hear this news and I’m breathing a heavy sigh of relief along with other campaigners who are happy that Shaker can now finally return to his family”.
More than 40,000 people signed an Amnesty worldwide petition calling on David Cameron and Barack Obama to bring the inmate back to the UK.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because details of the discussions remain secret, said elements of the British government, including the countrys counterterrorism officials, were reluctant to take Aamer.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has confirmed that the 46-year-old has been freed after 13 years in detention at the U.S. military facility in Cuba and that he has returned to the UK.
So, who is Shaker Aamer?
After spells in the USA, Europe and the Middle East – including working as a translator for the U.S. during the Gulf War – he settled in the UK.
Aamer, 46, was imprisoned 13 years ago after he was captured by bounty hunters in Afghanistan and handed over to USA forces.
In 2005, he went on hunger strike, which caused him to lose 50 per cent of his body weight.
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Aamer claimed to have been tortured at the military facility.
