Background:
· Jamil El-Banna, a 45 year old Jordanian national, has lived in the UK with his wife since 1994. The couple were granted refugee status in 1997.
· He was kidnapped at Banjul Airport in Gambia in November 2002 along with his friend, Iraqi Bisher El-Rawi. They had travelled there on a business trip.
· After being interrogated for a month in Gambia, the pair were taken to Afghanistan where they were tortured in the notorious “Dark Prison”. During this time, their families had no idea of where they were.
· In February 2003, they were taken to Guantánamo Bay.
· In November 2005, British lawyers for the pair and a third British resident in Guantánamo Bay, Libyan Omar Deghayes, launched a judicial review of the home secretary’s refusal to make representations on behalf of these men to return them to the UK, in particular given their refugee status in this country and subsequent duties incumbent on the UK government under the UN Convention on Refugees.
· In 2006, telegram evidence emerged of the British government’s knowledge and involvement in Jamil and Bisher’s kidnap and “rendition”.
· A year after representations were commenced on behalf of Bisher El-Rawi by the British government, he was released and returned to the UK in March 2007. The British government has refused to make any such representations for Jamil.
· In April 2007, Jamil was cleared of all charges by the Pentagon and is free to leave Guantánamo Bay as soon as he has a country to return to. As a refugee, returning to Jordan would mean he is almost certain to face further detention and inhumane treatment, although Jordan has agreed to accept him.
· The British government is still refusing to act on Jamil’s behalf, in spite of its international obligations towards him as a refugee.
· Lawyers for Jamil started an emergency judicial review of the Home Secretary’s inaction in June 2007 which will be heard in July 2007.
· Jamil was in the process of applying for British citizenship when he travelled to the Gambia.

Take action!
Time is running out for Jamil El-Banna: if the British government does not fulfil its moral duties soon, Jamil will be sent back to Jordan where he is almost certain to be jailed and abused. He has a wife and five British children in the UK.
Write to the new British Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, and ask her to take immediate action to ensure that Jamil El-Banna is returned to the UK NOW:
- Jamil has been found innocent by the American authorities and is not deemed to be a threat to anyone and is now free to leave Guantánamo Bay;
- The UK has a moral and legal obligation towards Jamil under international conventions having accepted him as a refugee;
- Jamil has a wife and five children, who are British nationals, living in the UK;
- If the British government does not act IMMEDIATELY to bring Jamil back to the UK, he will be returned to Jordan where he will face further illegal detention and torture;
- Furthermore, a precedent lies in the return of Bisher El-Rawi in March 2007. The British government can take action.






Sample letter (it is better to adapt the letter below when writing to the Home Secretary):

Dear Ms. Smith,

I am writing to you concerning the urgent plight of one of the British residents held at Guantánamo Bay. Jamil El-Banna has been held in Guantánamo Bay without charge or trial for the last four years.

Jamil El-Banna has recently been cleared of all charges and is not considered to pose a threat by the US authorities. He can leave as soon as he has a country to return to; that country should be the United Kingdom, where Mr. El-Banna held refugee status and has a wife and five children who are all British nationals. He was in the process of applying for British citizenship when he left the UK for a one month visit to the Gambia in November 2002, from which he has yet to return.

As a refugee, the British government has both a moral and legal obligation towards Mr. El-Banna and the result of the British government’s failure to recognise this responsibility for the past four years will only be compounded further if Mr. El-Banna is returned to Jordan, where he fled from, rather than being returned to his family in London. If returned to Jordan, he is almost certain to face further illegal detention and inhumane treatment.

While the government has denied its responsibility for the past four years, your predecessors have already proved that the British government can take action when it chooses; Mr El-Banna’s friend Bisher El-Rawi was returned to the UK from Guantánamo Bay in March 2007 after the British government made representations with the US government on his behalf.

I urge to meet your obligations and take urgent action to ensure Mr El-Banna’s safe and immediate return to Britain. I hope that this can be one of the first positive steps that your government is claiming to bring to the UK.

Yours sincerely,


Please send your letters immediately to:
Rt. Hon. Jacqui Smith MP
Home Secretary
The Home Office,
50 Queen Anne’s Gate,
London, SW1 9AT


Issued by the London Guantánamo Campaign
 london_gitmo@yahoo.co.uk
www.guantanamo.org.uk

Thursday 5 July 2007