Release
On 7 August 2007 the United Kingdom government requested the release of Binyam Mohamed and four other, men who had been legal British residents without being British citizens. He was not released however, and in June 2008 the U.S. military announced they were formally charging him.
On 16 January 2009 The Independent reported that Mohamed had told his lawyers he had been told to prepare for his return to the United Kingdom. The Independent quoted a recently declassified note from Mohamed: "It has come to my attention through several reliable sources that my release from Guantánamo to the UK had been ordered several weeks ago. It is a cruel tactic of delay to suspend my travel till the last days of this administration while I should have been home a long time ago."
Interviewed by Jon Snow of Channel 4 News on 9 February 2009 his military lawyer, Lt-Col Yvonne Bradley, asserted that there was no doubt that Mohamed had been tortured, and that Britain and the US were complicit in his torture. Bradley subsequently took up his case directly with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on 11 February 2009.
According to Agence France Presse Mohamed had been on a hunger strike but had stopped on 5 February 2009, when his lawyers informed him he could expect transfer to the UK soon. He was visited on 14 and 15 February 2009 by a delegation of UK officials, including a doctor, who confirmed he was healthy enough to be flown back to England.
On 23 February 2009, almost seven years after his arrest, Mohamed was repatriated from Guantánamo to the UK, where he was released after questioning.
Read more about this topic: Binyam Mohamed
Famous quotes containing the word release:
“The steel decks rock with the lightning shock, and shake with the
great recoil,
And the sea grows red with the blood of the dead and reaches for his spoil—
But not till the foe has gone below or turns his prow and runs,
Shall the voice of peace bring sweet release to the men behind the
guns!”
—John Jerome Rooney (1866–1934)
“The near touch of death may be a release into life; if only it will break the egoistic will, and release that other flow.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“If I were to be taken hostage, I would not plead for release nor would I want my government to be blackmailed. I think certain government officials, industrialists and celebrated persons should make it clear they are prepared to be sacrificed if taken hostage. If that were done, what gain would there be for terrorists in taking hostages?”
—Margaret Mead (1901–1978)