Shaker Aamer

rdf:langString Shaker Aamer

rdf:langString Shaker Abd al-Rahim Muhammad Aamer

rdf:langString right

rdf:langString Aamer in Guantanamo

rdf:langString Four children

rdf:langString Given the time involved, the lengthy spells in solitary confinement and the torture allegedly used against him, Shaker Aamer's plight has been one of the worst of all the detainees held at Guantanamo.

rdf:langString Please torture me in the old way ... Here they destroy people mentally and physically without leaving marks.

rdf:langString — Aamer in a letter to The Independent

rdf:langString — Amnesty International

rdf:langString Zin Siddique

rdf:langString Shaker Abd al-Rahim Muhammad Aamer (born 21 December 1966) is a Saudi citizen who was held by the United States in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba for more than thirteen years without charge. Aamer was seized in Afghanistan by bounty hunters, who handed him over to US forces in December 2001 during the United States military operation in the country. Two months later, the US rendered Aamer to the Guantánamo camp; he was held there without trial or charge. Aamer had been a legal resident in Britain for years before his imprisonment; the UK government repeatedly demanded his release, and many people there called for him to be released. According to documents published in the Guantanamo Bay files leak, the US military Joint Task Force Guantanamo believed that Aamer had led a unit of fighters in Afghanistan, including the Battle of Tora Bora, while his family was paid a stipend by Osama bin Laden. The file asserts past associations with Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui. Aamer denies being involved in terrorist activity and his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, said the leaked documents would not stand up in court. He claimed that part of the evidence came from an unreliable witness and that confessions Aamer made had been obtained through torture. Aamer's father-in-law, Saaed Ahmed Siddique, said: "All of these claims have no basis. If any of this was true he would be in a court now." The Bush administration acknowledged later that it had no evidence against Aamer. Aamer has never been charged with any wrongdoing, was never on trial, and his lawyer says he is "totally innocent." He was approved for transfer to Saudi Arabia by the Bush administration in 2007 and the Obama administration in 2009. He has been described as a "charismatic leader" who spoke up and fought for the rights of fellow prisoners. Aamer alleges that he has been subject to torture while in detention. Aamer has suffered decline in his mental and physical health over the years, as he participated in hunger strikes to protest his detention conditions, and was held in solitary confinement for much of the time. He claims to have lost 40 per cent of his body weight in captivity. After a visit in November 2011, his lawyer said, "I do not think it is stretching matters to say that he is gradually dying in Guantanamo Bay." In 2015, despite Aamer's deteriorating health, the US denied a request for an independent medical examination. In February 2015, 3 pupils from Kenilworth School, Warwickshire, Alex Brown, Thomas Edwards and Gareth Evans sent a letter requesting the release of Aamer to Jeremy Wright MP, which many believe was the start of helping Aamer being released and returned to the UK. Aamer, the last British resident to be held at Guantanamo Bay, was released to the United Kingdom on 30 October 2015.

rdf:langString December 2001