Omar Deghayes

Omar Deghayes (born November 28, 1969) is a Libyan citizen with residency status in the United Kingdom, who was arrested in Pakistan in 2002. He currently lives in the United Kingdom. After his arrest, he was taken into US military custody and sent to Guantanamo Bay detention camp, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 727.

His lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith alleges that Deghayes was blinded by pepper spray. Deghayes says he was blinded temporarily, and permanently in one eye, after a guard used fingers to gouge his eyes.

Deghayes' father was a union organiser who was executed in Libya while Omar was still a child. After this the family moved to the United Kingdom as refugees. They lived in Brighton According to the Birmingham Post Deghayes was a "laws graduate"; he studied law at the University of Wolverhampton and later studied in Huddersfield.

His family has mounted a campaign to free Deghayes. This campaign has received the support of the Brighton Argus newspaper and all six Members of Parliament in Sussex, where Omar Deghayes resided for many years and where his family still live.

On February 3, 2005 US District Court Justice Joyce Hens Green ordered that Deghayes, among other Guantánamo detainees, should be protected by the fifth amendment to the US Constitution.

In 2006, the British High Court considered whether the United Kingdom government should petition the United States government, on behalf of Guantánamo detainees who had legal residency status. The High Court concluded that they did not have the authority to make recommendation in the area of foreign affairs. They also called the evidence that the British residents were being tortured was "powerful".

The British government requested his release in August 2007, citing new openness on the part of the American administration. He was released on 18 December 2007; on his return to Britain, he was arrested under a Spanish warrant and has been released on bail while his case is considered.