End Indefinite Detention at Guantanamo
Charge or Release Shaker Aamer
As of February 14, 2012, former UK resident Shaker Aamer will have been held at Guantanamo without charge for 10 years. Indefinite detention is a human rights violation: the US must either charge Aamer with a crime or release him. Urge the US to charge or release Shaker Aamer and end indefinite detention at Guantanamo.
Former UK resident Shaker Aamer, a Saudi Arabian national, was originally detained in Afghanistan, where he was living with his family, by Afghan forces in the autumn of 2001. He was then transferred to US custody in Afghanistan.
In February 2002, Shaker Aamer was sent to Guantanamo Bay where he remains detained. At Guantanamo he has been involved in protesting against conditions at the camp, including by participating in hunger strikes. He has spent much of his time in Guantanamo held in solitary confinement.
Through his lawyers, Shaker Aamer has alleged that he was tortured numerous times in Afghanistan, including by US officials while British personnel were also present. He has also alleged that he has been tortured at Guantanamo. Shaker Aamer has never been charged, tried or convicted of any criminal offence by the US authorities. His British wife and children live in Battersea, South London. He had permission to live indefinitely in the UK when he was originally detained in Afghanistan by Afghan forces.
The UK government has asked for Shaker Aamer's return, and his case has been raised with US officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, by UK Foreign Secretary William Hague and UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
Read more about the case.
The United States detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have become emblematic of the gross human rights abuses perpetrated by the US government in the name of fighting terrorism.
At Guantanamo, the US government sought to hold detainees in a place neither US nor international law applied. But no one can be held outside of the law.
Detainees held at Guantanamo must either be promptly charged and given fair trials in US federal courts, or be released, to countries where they will not be at risk of human rights violations
President Obama pledged to close the detention facility, but human rights violations continue, including indefinite detention and unfair trials.
171 men are still detained at Guantanamo Bay (as of February 2012). Most have been held there without charge or trial for more than nine years.
President Obama's Guantanamo Review Task Force recommended that:
- 36 detainees should be prosecuted by the USA, either in federal court or in military commissions;
- 48 others should continue to be held indefinitely without charge or trial;
- The remainder should be transferred out of Guantanamo, to countries other than the USA. Some of those who could not be returned to their home countries have been offered a new home in third countries in Europe and elsewhere.
And the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay isn't the only prison where the United States is holding detainees outside the law. For example, over two thousand people are detained at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan. Most are held unlawfully, without warrant or charge, and without recourse to challenge their detention.
Indefinite detention and unfair trials are human rights violations. They must end. International law requires that all Guantanamo detainees either be charged with crimes and fairly tried, or be released. Trials should take place in US federal court, not in Guantanamo military commissions that do not meet international fair trial standards.
