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Emily Thornberry |
Warning that freed chef faces torture in Morocco
Fresh arrest threat for detainee released from Guantanamo Bay
LAWYERS fear a chef from Holloway freed last month after six years in Guantanamo Bay could face torture after being sent back to Morocco.
Ahmed Errachidi, from Russet Crescent, is now back with his family in Morocco but his legal team say he could face new charges.
He was arrested by American forces in 2001, accused of attending Afghanistan terror camps and being an al-Qaeda operative. But Mr Errachidi always maintained he was buying silver to sell in order to raise funds to pay for a heart operation for his sick son.
The father-of-two, who suffers from manic depression, was taken to Guantanamo Bay, where he spent months in solitary confinement.
Emily Thornberry, Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury, wrote to President George Bush, urging him to release Mr Errachidi.
On his return to Morocco last month, Mr Errachidi said in a statement: “I want to thank all the people who supported me from Britain. I received 283 letters from people in Britain, 283 beautiful letters that gave me so much hope.
“I am particularly grateful to the mothers and fathers who let their children write to me and send me the little cards they had drawn, as it was a constant reminder of my two young boys.”
He added: “I am very sorry not to have written back to each and every person, but I was treated very, very badly in Guantanamo. They held me in isolation for months on end, and I did not even have a pen.”
Mr Errachidi was forced to return to Morocco following his release, despite having spent 18 years in the UK working as a chef in some of London’s top restaurants.
His lawyers at Reprieve, a charity which takes up the cases of Guantanamo detainees, fear he will face fresh charges in Morocco. They have received no assurance of his safety from Moroccan authorities.
Human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, who founded Reprieve, visited Mr Errachidi in Guantanamo. He said: “This is a horrifying turn of events. Ahmed has suffered five unjustified years of imprisonment in Guantanamo’s inhuman conditions, but has now been officially cleared by the Americans, confirming that he poses no security threat. There are absolutely no grounds for his arrest in Morocco.
“Moroccan jails are notorious. I have spoken to prisoners who have endured months of beatings, who have been strung up by their hands until their shoulders dislocated, who have been force-fed drugs and who have had their genitals slashed by razors. The UK government must intervene before this deeply traumatised and innocent man suffers further.” |
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