URGENT: British resident in Guantánamo Bay released to Morocco "disappears"
London Guantánamo Campaign | 30.04.2007 08:06 | Terror War
Ahmed Errachidi, a Moroccan national who lived in the UK for over 18 years, was cleared for release from Guantánamo Bay last month. He was sent back to Morocco last week and promptly "disappeared". Campaigners, lawyers and friends are concerned for his wellbeing. It is for this reason that the UK government must bring these men back to the UK - to not face further torture. The UK government has a moral responsibility.
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
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
London Guantánamo Campaign
e-mail:
london_gitmo@yahoo.co.uk
Homepage:
http://www.guantanamo.org.uk
Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
sign of the Times
30.04.2007 08:38
Chef who was held on false claim vanishes into Morocco
"Mr Errachidi, 40, who suffers from bipolar disorder, was held for five years in the US military internment camp on the basis of a false claim by an unidentified informant that he received military training at a terrorist camp in Afghanistan in July 2001. But The Times has seen payslips, bank documents and witness statements that prove that Mr Errachidi was working at the five-star Westbury Hotel in Mayfair that month and sending money to his relatives in Morocco.
— 380 detainees are still at Guantanamo Bay
— 395 detainees have been released since 2002 and returned to countries including Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uganda and Yemen
— Seven Britons were freed in 2004 and 2005; eight others are still there "
Danny
Moroccan Embassy
30.04.2007 10:29
Their address is 49 Queens Gate Gardens, London, SW7 5NE.
Tel: 020 7581 5001/4 - Fax: 020 7225 3862
No offence to this site or the London Guantánamo Campaign but it will probably carry more wieght with the Moroccans if you quote the Times article if you do write or fax
Danny
None taken Danny
30.04.2007 12:34
Ahmed Errachidi was cleared to leave Guantánamo a month ago and was free to leave as soon as a country claimed him. That country should have been Britain which he has family and personal ties to. The British government did absolutely nothing maintaining its obtuse stance. Early in 2006 another British resident (whose whole family lives in the UK) was released to his native Uganda where he was held in jail for over three months (again no charge) and is still suffering incredible hardship. Of course, all the detainees should be released but there are a handful of those that the British government are in a particular position to help. Many of these men were asylum seekers and cannot return to their countries of origin, such as Ahmed Belbacha, who along with Ahmed Errachidi was also cleared to leave GITMO last month but is still there. Ahmed's release could be a negative indication of the fate of the other British residents, making their plight more desperate. It is for this reason that it is useful for people to write to the Foreign Office. They are responsible and if nothing else, it will show that the British public does not agree with the government's policy on this matter.
All British nationals were released by 2005, none remain, only 8 men with close ties to the UK. Angela Merkel asking for the return of Turkish-national-German-resident Murat Kurnaz last year and Bisher El-Rawi's return to the UK shows that countries can demand their residents back and the US will give them up.
London Guantánamo Campaign
London Guantánamo Campaign
e-mail:
london_gitmo@yahoo.co.uk
Homepage:
http://www.guantanamo.org.uk
Confirmed Arrested by Reuters
01.05.2007 16:20
Danny