House of Commons meeting to discuss Guantanamo detainee (From Wandsworth Guardian)

House of Commons meeting to discuss Guantanamo detainee

3:30pm Friday 26th October 2012 in News

A public meeting is to be held in The House of Commons on Monday (October 29) regarding the plight of Shaker Aamer in Guantanamo Bay.

The Battersea resident, whose wife and four children still live in the borough, was captured by US forces in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, in November 2001.

He has been held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2002, where he has allegedly suffered terrible abuse resulting in a "catastrophic" decline in his health, according to Reprieve – a non-profit organisation which enforces the human rights of prisoners.

Mr Aamer, who was also suspected of being a cohort of Osama Bin Laden, has never been charged with a crime by the United States government and has never received a trial.

The event, to be held at The House of Commons, is called A decade of injustice: Why is Shaker Aamer still in Guantanamo?

Soon after Reprieve took up his case Mr Aamer was granted clearance in 2007 but has never been released and has been held in isolation for more than two years.

After visiting Mr Aamer earlier this year, and witnessing his squalid living conditions, in Guantanamo Bay, Clive Stafford-Smith, director of Reprieve, penned a letter to the foreign secretary William Hague.

He wrote: "I do not think it is stretching matters to say he is gradually dying in Guantánamo Bay.

"I should note that on February 14 he will have been in Guantanamo Bay for 10 years; the anniversary coincides with the 10th birthday of his youngest child, who he has never met."

The venue for the meeting Room 15, House of Commons and it runs from 7pm-9pm. Confirmed speakers include Clive Stafford-Smith, Battersea MP Jane Ellison and, Omar Deghayes (ex-Guantanamo prisoner) A short documentary about will also be screened.