Guantanamo detainee 'to be freed'

12 April 2012

A British resident held at Guantanamo Bay for more than four years is expected to be released on Monday, his lawyer said.

UK and US authorities reached an agreement on Friday for Binyam Mohamed, 30, to be released from the controversial US military base in Cuba and returned to the UK.

Mr Mohamed's lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, director of legal charity Reprieve, said he expected his client to be released sometime on Monday.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Mr Mohamed would be returned to Britain "as soon as the practical arrangements can be made". He is expected to arrive back in the UK in the next few days.

Ethiopian-born Mr Mohamed, 30, has been held at the detention centre since September 2004. He was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 after the US launched its war on terror.

Mr Mohamed claims after being detained in Pakistan he was secretly flown to Morocco and tortured before being moved to Afghanistan and then to Guantanamo Bay.

The detainee, who lived in London before his arrest in Pakistan, also alleges he was tortured into falsely confessing to terrorist activities and claims MI5 officers were complicit in his abuse.

He went on a hunger strike for more than a month at the start of this year and was described by his legal team as "close to starvation".

A team of British officials who travelled to Guantanamo Bay earlier this month said he was well enough to travel back to the UK.

Mr Stafford Smith said Mr Mohamed "wants nothing more than to return to normal life in Britain".

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