Release
On August 7, 2007 the United Kingdom government requested the release of Jamil el-Banna and four other men who had been legal British residents without being British citizens. The UK government warned that the negotiations might take months.
Jamil el-Banna was released from Guantanemo Bay on 18 November 2007 and flown back to Britain. On his return, he was detained under port and border controls and questioned. On 19 November he was arrested under a Spanish extradition warrant. On 20 December he was released on bail of £50,000, part of which was put up by actress Vanessa Redgrave; conditions of his bail include observing a curfew and wearing an electronic tag.
On his return, El-Banna and Omar Deghayes were arrested and questioned, before appearing in court on a Spanish extradition warrant. He was freed on bail on 20 December, conditions of which include obeying a curfew and wearing an electronic tag.
On Thursday March 6, 2008 Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon dropped the extradition request on humanitarian grounds. Garzon based his decision on a medical examination made public on February 12, 2008. The report said El Banna suffered from: "post-traumatic stress syndrome, severe depression and suicidal tendencies. Garzon ruled the two men's mental health had deteriorated so badly it would be cruel to prosecute them.
Read more about this topic: Jamil El Banna
Famous quotes containing the word release:
“An inquiry about the attitude towards the release of so-called political prisoners. I should be very sorry to see the United States holding anyone in confinement on account of any opinion that that person might hold. It is a fundamental tenet of our institutions that people have a right to believe what they want to believe and hold such opinions as they want to hold without having to answer to anyone for their private opinion.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“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)
“We read poetry because the poets, like ourselves, have been haunted by the inescapable tyranny of time and death; have suffered the pain of loss, and the more wearing, continuous pain of frustration and failure; and have had moods of unlooked-for release and peace. They have known and watched in themselves and others.”
—Elizabeth Drew (1887–1965)