Shaker Aamer Finally Freed from Guantánamo: We Stand With Shaker Responds to the News

Finally, President Obama Vetoes Defen... Shaker Aamer’s Statement on His Relea...

Shaker Aamer Finally Freed from Guantánamo: We Stand With Shaker Responds to the News

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Great news finally, as Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in Guantánamo, has just arrived back in the UK, at Biggin Hill airport. Below is a version of a press release I wrote and sent out this morning on behalf of the We Stand With Shaker campaign.

Responding to the news of Shaker Aamer’s arrival back in the UK from Guantánamo, Andy Worthington, the co-director of the We Stand With Shaker campaign, said, “We are delighted to hear about Shaker Aamer’s return to the UK, bringing to an end his long and unacceptable ordeal in US custody for nearly 14 years. Eight years ago, under George W. Bush, Shaker was first told that the US no longer wanted to hold him, and in 2009 the Obama administration also approved him for release. To be held for so long, after being approved for release, is unforgivable.”

Andy added, “We hope that on his return he is not detained by the UK authorities, and will immediately be allowed to be reunited with his family, and to begin to receive the medical and psychological care that he urgently needs to begin to put his life back together again. We thank all the campaigners who have worked tirelessly for Shaker’s release, the MPs from across the political spectrum who have devoted their energies to addressing this terrible injustice, his lawyers, the media who have understood the importance of his case and the principles at stake, and, of course, the concerned citizens around the world who have recognised his plight and acted on it.”

Andy also said, “We also recall the 112 other men still held at Guantánamo, and note that 52 of them have also, like Shaker, been approved for release by high-level US government review processes. We call for them also to be released as soon as possible.”

We Stand With Shaker was set up by independent journalist Andy Worthington and activist Joanne MacInnes last November, to call for Shaker Aamer’s release from Guantánamo. They publicised Shaker’s plight by having celebrities and MPs stand with a giant inflatable figure of him. The campaign struck a chord with the media and the general public alike, and contributed to the pressure to secure Shaker’s return to the UK.

Two weeks ago, Andy and Joanne also set up Fast For Shaker, successfully encouraging celebrities, MPs and concerned citizens around the world to fast in solidarity with Shaker.

For further information, please contact:

Joanne MacInnes on 07867 553580 or email.

Andy Worthington on 020 8691 9316 or email.

Andy Worthington is a freelance investigative journalist, activist, author, photographer, film-maker and singer-songwriter (the lead singer and main songwriter for the London-based band The Four Fathers, whose debut album, ‘Love and War,’ is available for download or on CD via Bandcamp — also see here). He is the co-founder of the Close Guantánamo campaign, the co-director of We Stand With Shaker, calling for the immediate release from Guantánamo of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in the prison, and the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by the University of Chicago Press in the US, and available from Amazon, including a Kindle edition — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. He is also the co-director (with Polly Nash) of the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (available on DVD here — or here for the US).