Lawyers for British resident at Guantanamo urge his release

LONDON, Feb 8 (AFP) - Lawyers for a British resident held at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba urged London Tuesday to secure his release and return to Britain, rather than his home country of Saudi Arabia where they say he will be tortured.
A spokesman for the Saudi embassy in London, however, dismissed the torture concerns as outrageous, noting that the most important thing was to free Shaker Aamer, who has been held at the US prison without charge for three years.
British human rights lawyer Natalie Garcia said she had no idea if or when Aamer, 38, would be released, but urged US authorities to send him back to Britain, where he has a British wife and four young children.
To this end, Garcia and the detainee's US lawyer Clive Stafford Smith wrote to the British Foreign Office on Tuesday.
"All we are asking the British government to do is give a British father the permission to come back to Britain," said Stafford Smith.
"The Americans don't want to keep these guys at Guantanamo Bay, they are desperate to get rid of them," he told a news conference.
"They know that they have a bunch of guys who are not Osama Bin Laden."
Aamer, who has indefinite leave to remain in Britain, was in the process of applying for British citizenship when he was detained in Afghanistan where he had been working for a Saudi charity, his lawyers said.
In addition to pressing for his freedom, the legal team called on Britain to ensure Aamer is not sent back to Saudi Arabia for fear of further suffering.
"They also have a duty on behalf of his wife to make sure he is not sent back to a place where he will be tortured," Garcia told AFP.
But the Saudi embassy insisted that it had been working hard to release Saudi prisoners at the notorious camp in Guantanamo, and had already freed five citizens who, after being questioned, were back with their families.
"The allegation that Mr Aamer will be tortured when he is released is ridiculous," said Saudi embassy spokesman Ali al-Qarni.
As a Saudi citizen, it was likely that the prisoner would be returned to Riyadh upon his release, but he would be allowed to travel back to Britain after being assessed by the authorities, Qarni explained.
"We will always talk to people from Guantanamo Bay... to make sure he was not involved in any kind of action then he will eventually be reunited with his family whether in the United Kingdom or back in Saudi," he said.
Garcia, however, doubted this claim.
That "is complete rubbish because (the) Saudis have got a terrible human rights record... and certainly anyone who had come back from Guantanamo is going to be tortured," she said.
In addition, she claimed that Aamer could face up to seven years in prison for marrying a British woman without permission, but the Saudi spokesman rejected this notion as "outrageous".
"This is absolutely ridiculous, this is just something outrageous. He is not the first or the last to marry a foreign national this is irrelevant the most important thing is to get the individual released," he said.
As for the family, they have suffered terribly since his capture, said his father-in-law Saeed Ahmed Siddique, noting that Aamer's wife had been admitted to hospital suffering severe mental problems.
Aamer is one of at least five Guantanamo detainees recognised as British residents.
Nine British nationals who were also held at the base have all been released and returned home. The final four were set free last month. None has faced criminal charges.

02/08/2005 13:20 GMT - AFP