BRITAIN-GUANTANAMO/PROTEST Protesters call for immediate release of British Guantanamo prisoner

Record ID: 135102

  • Title: BRITAIN-GUANTANAMO/PROTEST Protesters call for immediate release of British Guantanamo prisoner
  • Date: 24th October 2015
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (FILE - DECEMBER 12, 2007) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR RIZ AHMED (BRITZ) READING POEM BY SHAKER AAMER: "They fight for peace by Shaker Aamer. Peace on earth...Peace of what kind..what kind of peace are they looking for? Why do they kill?" VARIOUS PHOTOGRAPHS OF SHAKER AAMER ON SCREEN ABOVE AMNESTY LAUNCH PODIUM AS AHMED READS (SOUN
  • Embargoed: 8th November 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cuba
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVABN22L1568JZ714MLJA1RT2G9L
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Supporters of a British national imprisoned without charge at Guantanamo Bay on Saturday (October 24) held a vigil opposite the prime minister's London residence, a day before he was due to to be released.
    Activists from campaign groups 'Save Shaker Aamer' and Amnesty International, lined up across the road from Downing Street, dressed in orange and holding placards calling for Shaker Aamer's release.
    Aamer, the last British resident to be held at Guantanamo Bay, is to be returned to the UK after 13 years at the U.S. detention camp, the Foreign Office said at the end of September.
    "Fourteen years of torture, I mean torture's bad enough, but when someone has never been charged and therefore assumed innocent, it's just intolerable," said Joanne Macinnes, Co-Director of 'We Stand We Shaker' campaign group.
    Aamer, a Saudi national who is married to a Briton, was never charged with any crime and had been cleared for release by U.S. authorities in 2007 but was not freed.
    His case was raised by British Prime Minister David Cameron during a visit to Washington in January and British lawmakers have called his treatment "inhuman".
    "It's very scary because, remember he is cleared for release (in) 2007 and subsequently (in) 2009, so it's a form of torture to say to somebody you're released and then keep them again for years," said British MP, Tania Mathias.
    Aamer moved to Britain in 1996 and was in Afghanistan doing voluntary work for an Islamic charity when he was captured by Afghan Northern Alliance forces in 2001 and handed to the U.S. military, according to rights group Reprieve.
    He was then moved to Guantanamo which opened in 2002.
    U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday (October 22) said he disagreed with provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would have limited his ability to close the Guantanamo Bay detention centre before he leaves office in January 2017.
    He told reporters Guantanamo was one of the premier mechanisms for jihadists to recruit and that it was time for the U.S. to close it.
    Closing the controversial military prison camp was a main promise of Obama's first presidential campaign, in 2008.
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