Bring Ahmed Belbacha home from Guantánamo Bay

Ahmed Belbacha is an Algerian national who lived and worked in England for two and a half years. Born in 1969, he came here in 1999 as an asylum seeker, fleeing from an Islamist terrorist group in his country.

ahmed belbacha

Belbacha was arrested whilst on holiday in Pakistan in 2001 and secretly flown to Guantanamo in 2002. Asylum in the UK was not granted on grounds of nonappearance at the final appeal. This took place after his arrest and it wasn’t known that he was in Guantanamo because identities of detainees were kept secret.

Belbacha has been in Guantanamo for nearly ten years now. His name was not included in the UK government’s 2007 request that the US authorities release five former UK residents on the grounds that he was not technically a legal resident, so there was no obligation to help. William Hague has refused to intervene on Belbacha’s behalf so far.

Belbacha was cleared for release in 2007, but despite the harsh conditions in Guantanamo, he refuses to return to Algeria where he would be in grave danger. He has already been convicted in his absence to twenty years imprisonment for belonging to an “overseas terrorist group”. In 2006, the UN Human Rights Committee urged the US to “take all necessary measures to ensure that it transferred no-one to another country where there are substantial reasons for believing that they would be in danger of being subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

Reprieve has been active in this case and is asking that Britain offers repatriation, as he had been here for nearly three years and it would be a humanitarian gesture. It’s also felt that we do owe him something as British security services were involved in his interrogation in Kandahar, where he suffered physical abuse.

Repatriation to the UK could also be put forward as a gesture of cooperation with the US which is having difficulty finding countries for prisoners who cannot be safely repatriated, thereby helping Obama to close Guantanamo. Other European countries have done this – Belgium, Ireland, Italy and Spain, to name a few.

Kate Allen has also urged the UK government to intervene. She said “Ahmed Belbacha has become the forgotten Guantanamo prisoner.”

Whilst a lot of effort is being made, and rightly so, on Shaker Aamer’s behalf, let us also pay some attention to Ahmed Belbacha’s plight.

It’s now time to start increasing the pressure on the UK to offer a safe haven and on the US government not to send Belbacha back to Algeria, whose diplomatic assurances cannot be trusted.

Should you want more detailed and up-to-date information please visit http://www.reprieve.org.uk/cases/ahmedbelbacha

This website contains background information, reports and facts that can be used in letters.

Actions we can take

Cards or letters of support can be sent to:

Ahmed Belbacha, ISN290, Camp Delta, US Naval Base, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Washington DC 20355, USA.

Letters pressing the government to offer repatriation can be sent to:

  • Prime Minister David Cameron 10, Downing Street, London SW1A 2AG
  • Foreign Secretary William Hague, The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, King Charles Street, London SW1A 2AH

Please send a copy to your own MP. This is important.

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If you are not sure who is your MP or which area you live in you can find them via www.writetothem.com, simply by entering your Post Code.

Letters appealing to the US government not to send Belbacha to Algeria can be sent to:

  • Ambassador Louis B Susman, US Embassy, 24, Grosvenor Square, London W1A 1AE
  • President Obama, The White House, 1600, Pennsylvannia Avenue, Washington DC, 20500 USA
  • Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, 2201 C Street NW, Washington DC 20301, USA

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