Britain wins release of 4 men at Guantanamo

U.S. and British authorities reached an agreement to soon release four British residents from the Pentagon’s prison for terrorism suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, their lawyers said Friday.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged the release of the last five British detainees in August, soon after coming to power, pressing the Bush administration to satisfy a diplomatic appeal by its closest ally in the war in Iraq and the U.S.-declared war on terrorism.

But Brown’s request for release of a fifth British detainee, Ethiopian-born Binyam Mohammed, was denied, said Zachary Katznelson, senior counsel for the British rights group Reprieve, which represents the five prisoners.

Mohammed, 29, was one of 10 Guantanamo prisoners charged with war crimes under a military tribunal created by President Bush in November 2001 and struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional in June 2006. Mohammed, who moved to Britain in the early 1990s and was accused of having been an associate of would-be “shoe bomber” Richard Reid, may have been denied release because the Pentagon may be planning to charge him again under the new judicial system created by Congress last year with the Military Commissions Act.

One of the four to be released, Saudi-born Shaker Aamer, will be sent to Saudi Arabia instead of Britain by mutual agreement, Katznelson said. Aamer was alleged to have close ties with senior Al Qaeda figures, and his release to his homeland may have been demanded by Washington as a means of ensuring he remains under close government supervision. The Saudi government has made dozens of released Guantanamo prisoners go through a rehabilitation program meant to steer them away from extremism.

Sending Aamer, who staged frequent hunger strikes at the prison, to Saudi Arabia also probably will prevent him from making public statements condemning the Guantanamo operations, as other Britons who have been released have done. Three British men of Pakistani origin collaborated to help produce the film “The Road to Guantanamo” after their release three years ago. The other three men to be released soon are Jordanian refugee Jamil Banna, Libyan refugee Omar Deghayes and Algerian-born Abdennour Sameur. British media were reporting that the men would be home by Christmas.

All five of the men Brown sought to be repatriated have permanent British residency. Nine British citizens jailed at Guantanamo since the detention operations began in January 2002 had been sent home by 2004, and another refugee with British residency was released this year.

Washington’s European allies won the return of their nationals after condemning the Pentagon’s claimed right to indefinitely detain without charge or legal recourse any foreigner it suspects of terrorist activity.

Katznelson flew to Washington on Friday after visiting his clients at Guantanamo to tell them their release had been approved.

“They were incredibly excited,” he said, adding that he wasn’t sure of the timing but that it would be “in the near future.”

Deghayes, 38, was blinded in one eye, the lawyer said, by Guantanamo guards who repeatedly doused him with mace during forced removals from his cell by a controversial practice known as “IRFing,” after the Immediate Reaction Forces deployed there.

Banna, a father of five who, like Aamer, has not seen his youngest child, suffers from diabetes that hasn’t been treated during his three-year detention, Katznelson said.

“That’s never been confirmed,” a Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey D. Gordon, said of the allegations of mistreatment at Guantanamo.

Gordon also disputed that Aamer would be released, although he indirectly confirmed Washington’s agreement to send the other three to Britain.

“The United States government doesn’t desire to be the world’s jailer,” Gordon said when asked about the reported repatriation deal.

The departures will drop the Guantanamo prisoner population to about 300.

--

carol.williams@latimes.com