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Binyam Mohamed To Be Free At Last

By possum

Following four years in U.S. detention and a series of transfers around the world, Binyam Mohamed has been notified of his impending release to England.

He is one of three remaining detainees who claim British residency and whose return to this country would bring to an end the UK's association with (Guantanamo Bay).

The U.K. does not recognize British citizenship for any of the other 250 detainees remaining in detention at Guantanamo today.

habacuc, Flickr, Creative Commons

Binyam has been held for four years.  His release papers are dated December 29 but were released to him and to the public only last week.  Binyam is another whose sordid tale has been told here at NION before.  As of last night Binyam's attorneys expressed concern for his health status as he entered the 20th day of a hunger strike.  According to one of Binyam's legal representatives, Mr. Stafford Smith,

Binyam was literally kidnapped and taken to Morocco, Afghanistan and then Guantanamo Bay. Now he is being held there after almost seven years without a trial, and the military refuses to let us know when his health is threatened. It is very worrying

Mr Mohamed, an Ethiopian who was granted refugee status in the UK in 1994, was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and handed over to US security agencies before being questioned by MI5.

Binyam is another detainee with a lengthy listing of torture in both Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.  All charges against him were dropped last year.

When Binyam is released and transferred back to England we as a nation will have made one more small step toward justice.  That he was detained for more than 4 years without being charged in any form of legal proceedings attests to the injustice of his apprehension in the first place.  There is no going back to reverse that course.  

Binyam and others will not have their lives restored.  They will not return to the same condition they once found in life.  The horror of their mistreatment may never be known in full detail but enough is known to recognize we must never allow this to occur again.  Never again in any of our names.

Personal Collection

Peace.

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on January 17, 2009 (boomark / email).