Belmarsh, control orders, deportation and extradition

My name is Hussain Al-Samamara. I’m Jordanian, and I’m 33 years old. I’m a husband and I’m a father. I’m a brother and a son. I’m a friend and I’m an artist. But I am not a terrorist. To be honest with you I don’t know how I got here. This was never meant to […]

You know me as Amer Makhlulif, because I have been arrested, but never charged, as a threat to the national security, and I was therefore afraid to disclose my real name for fear of threats. Amer Makhlulif was the name given me by the immigration officer when I sought asylum in the UK, as he […]

They call me BB. I can’t tell you my real name. I’m an Algerian and I’ve been in this country since 1995. I’m 43 years old. I live with my wife and three children. I’ve got two girls and one boy — he’s only three. The bail conditions I’m under apply to me, but in […]

They call me Y. But I am more than a letter. I am a man. I’m Algerian, and am 39 years old. It’s been such a long time since I experienced “normal life.” My story is a bit confusing to follow. I’ll keep it simple. I came to the UK because of its impressive human […]

On Monday, in a packed committee room in the House of Commons, politicians, lawyers and human rights campaigners came together to discuss how to both confront and publicize the British government’s increasing reliance on the use of secret evidence, and evidence obtained through torture. The meeting focused in particular on the cases of five men […]

In a series of articles this week, Andy Worthington, journalist and author of The Guantánamo Files, follows up on a Parliamentary meeting in the House of Commons on Monday — “Britain’s Guantánamo? The use of secret evidence and evidence based on torture in the UK courts,” chaired by Diane Abbott MP — with four articles […]

For the Guardian’s Comment is free, “Torture taints all our lives” is an article I wrote following up on last Friday’s news that Britain’s Attorney General has instructed the Director of Public Prosecutions to investigate the claims by released Guantánamo prisoner Binyam Mohamed that MI5 agents had knowledge of his torture and provided information to […]

A month ago, when Britain’s Law Lords ruled that three men who have each spent between six and eight years imprisoned without charge or trial, or held without charge or trial under strict bail conditions amounting to house arrest, could be deported to their home countries, even though there was a risk — or, perhaps, […]

The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, appears to have declared war on the government’s own secret terror court, overruling decisions made by judges in the Special Immigration Appeals Court (SIAC) yesterday, and — in what can only be described as an act of executive fiat — unilaterally revoking their bail, kidnapping them on their way home […]

As one door opens, another, it seems, closes. While British resident Binyam Mohamed was on his was back to the UK from Guantánamo, Jarallah al-Marri, the Qatari national who was released from Guantánamo last July, was detained at Heathrow airport after flying into the UK on Sunday. He is being held at the Colnbrook Immigration […]