‘Guantanamo man should be released’ (From Surrey Comet)

‘Guantanamo man should be released’

9:32am Friday 17th December 2004

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The plight of a New Malden man held captive at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba was highlighted by a London MEP.

Bisher Al-Rawi has been detained at Guantanamo Bay for more than two years, despite the fact that he has yet to be charged with any offence.

This point was highlighted by Baroness Sarah Ludford during a service of reflection organised by the Guantanamo Human Rights Commission at St Martin-in-the-Fields last Friday.

Speaking at the event, staged on International Human Rights Day, the baroness, who is also LibDem European Justice spokeswoman, said: "We are thinking today of all the people in the world who suffer repression, persecution and torture. Bisher Al-Rawi from Kingston, along with eight other Britons, is still held at Guantanamo Bay without charge or fair trial.

"The problem is that the Foreign Office is not concerning itself with Mr Al-Rawi because he has not got a British passport. This is because he kept Iraqi citizenship so he could return and look after family interests.

"This Government has washed its hands of him, even though he has lived in Britain for 20 years." The baroness said the EU, which claims to uphold human rights, should put pressure on the US for Mr Al-Rawi's release.

Mr Al-Rawi, who has been interrogated more than 50 times, was brought up from an early age in New Malden. While he rest of his family have UK citizenship, his supporters say he retained his Iraqi identity hoping he could return to claim assets abandoned when his family fled Saddam Hussein's regime in the early 1980s.

He has been in custody since being arrested in November 2002 in Gambia and taken to Cuba.

Campaign worker Mark Jennings, who is fighting on his family's behalf, said his supporters were awaiting the outcome of a Federal Court hearing in Washington on December 1.

He added: "Mr Al-Rawi was declared to be an enemy combatant when he stood before a combatant status review panel several weeks ago. So, they clearly want to hang onto him for now."

He claimed that Vanessa Redgrave, one of the people who set up the Guantanamo Human Rights Commission, was taking an interest in Mr Al-Rawi's case.

The British Government says it has no diplomatic authority to demand his release because he is not a British citizen.

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