Cageprisoners director, Moazzam Begg, along with journalist Victoria Brittain and actress/activist, Vanessa Redgrave, addressing parliamentary meeting on Shaker Aamer
The 11 January was a day for Shaker Aamer. He is the last remaining British resident in Guantanamo bay and his wife and four children are all British citizens. The youngest of his four children has never met him as he was born after shaker was already in US detention. He has been detained without charge for eight years. According to Brent Mickum his US attorney who was in London on 11 January there is not now, nor has there ever been, any evidence of Shaker Aamer’s guilt of any crime against the people of the US or otherwise. This much has been admitted by the US authorities who cleared shaker Aamer for release in 2007.
Why then is shaker still there? There are a few reasons. The first of these is most likely the symbolic relevance of Shaker Aamer in Guantanamo. According to Moazzam Begg, Cageprisoners spokesperson and an ex-gitmo prisoner who also happened to be a close friend of Shaker before they were both detained in GuantanamoBay it is due to his position amongst the prisoners. He has it seems become a source of inspiration for those detained in Guantanamo. He was for instance the assumed head of the prisoner’s council that was formed by the prisoners to negotiate better conditions with their US jailers as he was so vociferous in advocating prisoner’s rights and he was also prominent amongst the organisers of the hunger strikes. Begg told the parliamentary meeting on 11 January that on his travels around the world meetings with former Guantanamo prisoners, everyone has the same question: “what is happening to Shaker Aamer?”
On 11 January Cageprisoners in coordination with Amnesty International organised a letter to be given in to Downing Street by Shaker Aamer’s oldest daughter Johina. She was accompanied by Vanessa Redgrave, Victoria Brittain, Kate Allen (Amnesty), Kate Hudson (CND), Baroness Helena Kennedy QC and Gareth Peirce. The text of the letter can be read here:
The letter delivery at 2 pm was followed up by a Parliamentary meeting at the Jubilee Room in the Palace of Westminster. This was well attended and the speakers included Martin Linton (Shaker Aamer's local MP),Vanessa Redgrave, Kate Allen, Brent Mickum (Shaker Aamer's American Lawyer), Gareth Peirce (Shaker Aamer's British Lawyer), Saeed Siddiqe (Shaker Aamer's father in law) and Moazzam Begg. Coverage of the day can be viewed at the following links:
Binyam Mohamed also a former GuantanamoBay detainee, though not able to attend, had the following message read on his behalf:
“CampGuantanamo is something from fiction that America has brought to life. Eternally stamped in the history books, and it can never be erased or forgotten. For the 200 prisoners still illegally held there, the closing of Guantanamo will bring no relief, as they will simply be transferred to other illegal places under the same wretched, inhumane conditions where the laws change to suit the administration.
The majority have been cleared for release, yet political facades keep them from returning safely to their loved ones. Shaker Ahmed is one of those men who was cleared on the 7th August 2007 by the former U.S administration, and this has been upheld by the present U.S administration, yet more than 2 years later, he still lingers in Guantanamo unsure of his fate.
The closure of Guantanamo is not the end, the closure of Guantanamo and the U.S accepting responsibility for this evil doing, should set the precedent for all such oppressive systems worldwide, which bring shame on their governments.
When innocent civilians are kidnapped, sold by bounty hunters to the highest bidder, shipped for torture to secret locations, held illegally and totally stripped of their rights as human beings. We cannot ever call this acceptable.
Integrating an illegitimate system like Guantanamo into a Federal U.S system, as they propose to do with the remaining and future Muslim prisoners, under the guise of this so called "war against terror" simply seeks to legitimise what has been done in Guantanamo and continues in other U.S. run torture camps like Bagram, Abu Ghraib and many other such places.
The U.K needs to stand up against these injustices and encourage her ally to do the same, and denounce and bring an end to, the kidnapping and torture of Muslim men and boys.”
Cageprisoners hopes that continued pressure will lead to the release of Shaker Aamer at the earliesr possible date.
Cageprisoners director, Moazzam Begg, along with journalist Victoria Brittain and actress/activist, Vanessa Redgrave, addressing parliamentary meeting on Shaker Aamer