Freed Guantanamo Detainee is Back in Britain
By VOA News
23 February 2009
Former British resident Binyam Mohamed has been released from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after seven years of detention -- the first release since U.S. President Barack Obama took office a month ago.
British and U.S. officials said the 30-year-old Mohamed arrived in Britain Monday.
The British government had lobbied for the release of Ethiopian-born Mohamed, who was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and had been held at Guantanamo since 2004. He was accused of attending al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan and plotting to set off a radioactive bomb.
Mohamed alleges he was tortured by Pakistani agents in the presence of a British agent in Pakistan and tortured by U.S. interrogators in Morocco and Afghanistan before being sent to Guantanamo.
In a statement, the U.S. Justice Department said an interagency panel determined that the transfer is consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the U.S. and the interests of justice.
Mr. Obama has ordered the controversial Guantanamo prison to be closed within a year. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is visiting the facility Monday as part of the review.
Rights groups and foreign governments have condemned the Guantanamo detention center, where many detainees have been imprisoned for years without trial. Some 250 prisoners are currently being held at the facility.
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