Urgent Action: British resident AHMED ERRACHIDI has been released from Guantánamo Bay and has subsequently “disappeared” in Morocco
Date: 29 April 2007
Background:
• Ahmed Errachidi, a 41 year old Moroccan national, lived in Holloway, North London; he had lived in the UK for 18 years; his application for indefinite leave to remain in the UK was pending when he was seized.
• In 2001, he travelled to Pakistan to start a business venture to raise funds for a desperately-needed heart operation for his one year-old son. He was sold to the US military by Pakistani bounty hunters in Islamabad.
• He was then transferred to American jails in Afghanistan before being sent to Guantánamo Bay.
• Ahmed Errachidi had been held in Guantánamo Bay for over 5 years, during which he earned himself the nickname “The General” for his good English and organising other prisoners in actions against prison guards.
• He spent three years in constant solitary confinement, the longest of any Guantánamo detainee, for refusing to cooperate with the prison authorities.
• Ahmed Errachidi took part in the hunger strike in 2006 to protest his innocence.
• In March 2007, the American government corroborated that and cleared him for immediate release as he poses NO threat to security whatsoever - this was after 5 YEARS PLUS of detention without charge or trial.
• The British government has obtusely refused to seek the return of the ten British residents to the UK on the grounds that they are not citizens, although they did secure the return of an Iraqi, Bisher Al-Rawi, in March 2007.
• Ahmed Errachidi was released from Guantánamo Bay on 24 April 2007 and flown to Morocco where he subsequently “disappeared” upon arrival. “Disappearances” are common in Morocco, a country which is well known for its practice of torture and repression. Binyam Mohammed, a fellow British resident, was tortured in Morocco for several months, en route to Guantánamo.

Take action!
Write to the British Foreign Secretary (the least she can now do is press the Moroccan authorities to reveal Ahmed Errachidi’s whereabouts) and the Moroccan Authorities (in English, French or Arabic) asking:
- for Ahmed’s whereabouts to be revealed
- for assurances to be provided that he is safe and not facing torture or any other forms of degrading and inhuman treatment
- for Ahmed to be granted immediate access to medical care, his family and lawyers
- to demand that Ahmed Errachidi be charged with recognisable legal offences or released IMMEDIATELY

Sample letter to Moroccan authorities: (feel free to adapt and/or write your own)
Dear,
I am writing to you concerning Ahmed Errachidi. Ahmed is a 41 year old Moroccan national who was returned to your country from Guantánamo Bay on Wednesday 25 April where he disappeared immediately upon arrival. His current whereabouts are still unknown and I am concerned for his physical and mental wellbeing.
Ahmed was released after 5 years of detention without charge or trial at Guantánamo Bay after the American authorities acknowledged that he was innocent and has no links to terrorism. Ahmed was unjustly detained for five years.
I call you on you to make his whereabouts known immediately and to provide me with assurances that he is safe and is not facing torture or any other forms of degrading and inhuman treatment. I demand that Ahmed be granted immediate access to medical care, his family and lawyers. Ahmed Errachidi is an innocent man and has already been wrongly detained for five years; I therefore call you on charge Ahmed Errachidi with recognisable offences for which you have proof or to release him immediately.
Please take action to uphold Ahmed’s human rights now.

Yours sincerely,

His Majesty King Mohammad VI (Greeting: Your Majesty)
King of Morocco
The Royal Palace
Rabat, The Kingdom of Morocco
Fax: + 212 37 76 85 15

Mohamed Bouzoubaa (Greeting: Your Excellency)
Minister of Justice
Place El-Mamounia
Rabat, Morocco

Moroccan Embassy in the UK (Greeting: Your Excellency)
HE Mohammed Belmahi
The Moroccan Embassy
49 Queen’s Gates Gardens
London, SW7 5NE
Fax: + 44 20 7225 3862
 mail@sifamaldn.org or  ihilan@yahoo.co.uk

Sample letter to the British Foreign Secretary: (feel free to adapt and/or write your own): Please write to your own MP too:

Dear Mrs Beckett,
I am writing to you concerning Ahmed Errachidi. Ahmed is a 41 year old Moroccan national who was returned to Morocco from Guantánamo Bay on Tuesday 24 April where he disappeared immediately upon arrival. His current whereabouts are still unknown and I am concerned for his physical and mental wellbeing.

Ahmed lived in the UK for 18 years. Ahmed was released after 5 years of detention without charge or trial at Guantánamo Bay after the American authorities acknowledged that he was innocent and has no links to terrorism. Ahmed was unjustly detained for five years.

It is due to the fear of such treatment upon their return to their country of origin that British campaigners are calling for all Guantánamo detainees with links to the UK to be returned here. As your government has constantly refused to make any representations of behalf of former British residents held in Guantánamo Bay on the basis that they are not Britons, eschewing your moral responsibility, I call on you to take immediate steps to determine his whereabouts and ensure that he is not being subjected to any form of degrading and inhuman treatment. Additionally the British Foreign Office must try and get access to Ahmed Errachidi as soon as possible to confirm his safety and security for the sake of his British family.

I hope you will take immediate action to uphold Ahmed’s human rights now

The British Foreign Secretary
Margaret Beckett
Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
King Charles Street,
SW1A AH
Fax: + 44 20 7839 2417
 Private.office@fco.gov.uk