| Shaker Aamer, the last British inmate at Guantanamo Bay, has been released after almost 14 years behind bars without trial, the UK Foreign Office has confirmed. Aamer, 46, was born in Saudi Arabia but has British residency, and his family is based in London. His case was debated in the House of Commons in March, with Washington urged to speed up the transfer, which was cleared back in 2007. Aamer was originally detained in Afghanistan in 2001 and accused of having links to Al-Qaeda. He was later transferred to Guantanamo Bay detention camp, where he has been held without charge. A flight left Guantánamo Bay at 11.30pm local time (03:30 GMT Friday) and is bound for London’s Biggin Hill Airport, the Guardian reported. Aamer has never been charged with a crime or faced trial since he arrived at the notorious high-security US prison in Cuba. The US military claimed he was a “close associate” of Osama Bin Laden and a “recruiter, financier, and facilitator” for Al-Qaeda. Aamer later said he confessed to being a jihadist under torture by the CIA, adding that he would have told interrogators “he was Bin Laden” to make the torture stop. According to the detainee, US interrogators told him they would rape his five-year-old daughter. “One interrogator talked about what he would do to my five-year-old daughter in details that destroyed me,” Aamer said, as cited by the Independent.Late last month, US President Barack Obama agreed to send the last remaining British detainee at Guantanamo Bay back to the UK. Prime Minister David Cameron had raised the issue of Aamer’s imprisonment with Obama back in January, during a visit to the White House. Although the president pledged to “prioritize” the case, Aamer’s legal team complained in August that nothing had been done in reality to help his cause. Speaking to the press, Aamer’s US legal counsel described Washington’s refusal to release Aamer as “shameful.” One of Aamer's lawyers, Ramzi Kassem, urged the British government to pressure the White House further. His call appears to have been finally acted on. |