Omar is coming home (From The Argus)

Omar is coming home

11:42pm Friday 7th December 2007 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Deghayes is to be released, The Argus can reveal.

The 38-year-old former Brighton law student will be reunited with his family in Saltdean after five years in the American prison camp in Cuba.

Last night councillors and supporters thanked The Argus for keeping Mr Deghayes's plight in the public eye with its Justice For Omar campaign.

British and US authorities have been negotiating about Omar's return over the past few months despite the Pentagon insisting he has links to al-Qaeda.

Mr Deghayes is one of five men who the Government requested was released in August.

He, Jamil el-Banna and Abdenour Samuer will return to the UK, while Shaker Abdur-Raheem Aamer will go back to his native Saudi Arabia.

Ethiopian Binyam Mohammed al Habashi, will remain at the camp.

An official announcement on the release is expected in the next few weeks. Brighton and Hove City councillor Keith Taylor has for years been campaigning for Mr Deghayes' release.

He said: "It is great the Americans have finally seen sense and given him back to his family.

"He was a bloke who was a member of Brighton's community, who lived here for years, and went to college here. Then all of a sudden he was taken away from his family and locked up without any access to justice.

"Irrespective of whether he was guilty, the way he was locked up without trial was wrong.

"The campaigns, including The Argus's, crossed many social and political boundaries.

"Campaigners will be celebrating because their effort has paid dividends."

Louise Purbrick from the Save Omar Campaign said: "It is great news and I'm sure the family are hugely relieved.

"It is very important to know it was the activists of Brighton and Hove who made the Government take notice. I'm sure that without the people of this city the Government would have forgotten about him."

Campaigner Jackie Chase said: "I'm absolutely delighted with the news and I hope this is the end of torture and abuse. Omar and his family have been subjected to unbelievable distress and we want to thank all the campaigners for their great efforts.

"We now want to make sure he is home with his family in time for Christmas."

The detainees are not British citizens but lived in the UK before being held.

Mr Deghayes came to Britain with his family from Libya in 1986, six years after his father Amer was allegedly killed by the Gaddafi regime, an incident reported by Amnesty International at the time.

He travelled from Britain to Afghanistan, where he met and married an Afghan woman with whom he has a son, Suleiman.

Mr Deghayes was taken into custody, allegedly by bounty hunters, in Pakistan in 2002.

Campaigners will hold a public meeting at 7.30pm at Hove Town Hall on Monday night.

James Yee, the former Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo, will speak at the event.