High-level diplomacy has secured the release of British citizens from Guantanamo Bay. However, at least 8 British residents, all of whom were initially granted asylum in this country, remain indefinitely detained without trial. The names of the British residents who have been identified to date are: Omar Deghayes, Binyam Mohammed, Shaker Aamer, Jamal Kiyemba, Bisher Al-Rawi, Jamal El Banna and Ahmed Errachidi.

The next step is to secure the release of these people.

Prominent lawyers and Human Rights experts have consistently pointed out that the fundamental breach of human rights at Guantanamo Bay is to render stateless those it detains: They are held beyond the reach of national laws both of their own country and that of the US, as well as international conventions.

Those calling this meeting are arguing that our Government should acknowledge its responsibility and duty to those it once protected.

The continuing hunger strike, the widely reported use of “cruel inhuman and degrading treatment” by the most respected of our international bodies, and the lack of information about the physical and mental condition of detainees, makes it increasingly urgent for independent experts to gain access to the prison camp and see first hand a regime that is currently being kept secret. There have been many calls for an independent high level visit to Guantanamo Bay.

We have called this Parliamentary meeting to give MPs and others an opportunity to debate what actions need to be taken, including support for an independent delegation and for due legal process to be applied to all the British residents.

Invited speakers include Sir Iqbal Sacranie (Secretary General of The Muslim Council of Britain), Clive Stafford Smith (lawyer for 6 British residents including Omar Deghayes), Asim Qureshi (Cage Prisoners), Moazzem Begg (British citizen released from Guantanamo Bay), The Deghayes family, and a representative of Amnesty International.


Save Omar (www.save-omar.org.uk) are a group of residents from Brighton and Worthing who, with the support of their local Councillors, local MPs and local paper The Argus have been campaigning for the release of Omar Deghayes from Guantanamo to his home and family in Saltdean, just outside Brighton on the south coast.