The London Guantánamo Campaign started a week-long vigil outside the US Embassy in London at 6pm on Friday 18 July. We will be there, opposite the entrance, until 3pm on Thursday 24 July, when Binyam will turn 30. Held in Guantánamo Bay since 2004 and a victim of extraordinary rendition, Binyam has been held illegally by the CIA since 2002. Binyam has spent one in five years of his life in illegal detention. Tortured in Morocco to procure “evidence” that the Americans now plan to use against him in a kangaroo court, Binyam is now – 6 years later – facing the prospect of an unfair trial at Guantánamo Bay and potentially the death penalty.

We are calling on the US to drop the fallacious charges – which include planning to transport uranium into the US to make a “dirty bomb” – and end the kangaroo court system at Guantánamo.

On Binyam’s birthday, 24 July, we will then move on to the Happy Birthday Binyam! Demonstration outside Downing Street at 6pm, where we will call on the British government to take action – by revealing evidence that it has in its possession – to see Binyam released. The British government asked for Binyam’s release last August and does not believe that Binyam is guilty of anything.

About 10 people, including Andy Worthington, the author of The Guantánamo Files and a staff member of Reprieve, joined the start of the vigil. The police attempted to stop and search a freelance journalist filming the event as the American Embassy feels paranoid about anyone taking pictures of its building or staff. The police were generally amicable.

Six years without trial, enough is enough! Please join us over the next week – we will be there 24/7 until 24/7. Join us in your summer holidays, after work, at lunchtime, take a break from shopping in the West End… Freedom and justice cannot be compromised or subverted/perverted.

 http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=16939923951
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR2cW_JZdvo