US agrees release of UK Guantanamo Bay suspect
Guantanamo Bay has received international criticism
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Thursday, 29, Mar 2007 07:26
A British resident is to be released from the US base in Guantanamo Bay where hundreds of terror suspects are being held, foreign secretary Margaret Beckett has announced.
Bisher al-Rawi, who had lived in the UK for two decades, will be returned to Britain after spending five years in the high-security prison at the US naval base on Cuba.
He was arrested in Gambia on a business trip with his Jordanian colleague Jamil el-Banna in 2002. Mr el-Banna remains in custody in Guantanamo Bay.
"I am relieved that after nearly five years in prison without charge or trial my constituent is now being released from Guantanamo Bay," Mr al-Rawi's MP in the Kingston and Surbiton constituency, Liberal Democrat Ed Davey, said.
"Everything I've learned from his family, his lawyers, UK government officials, journalists and even the US authorities, tells me Bisher al-Rawi is not and has never been a threat to national or international security. His case should be a lesson to us all that when you ignore natural justice injustice follows."
It is unclear whether Mr al-Rawi will be kept in custody when he returns to Britain.
Announcing the decision in a written statement to the House of Commons, Ms Beckett said that Mr al-Rawi's release followed "extensive discussions" about the "security implications" of the decision.
"The UK will continue to take the necessary measures to maintain national and international security," she said.