Jamil El-Banna

On Thursday, at the Frontline Club in London, former Guantánamo prisoners Sami al-Haj, Binyam Mohamed, Jamil El-Banna, Omar Deghayes and Moazzam Begg spoke at the launch of the Guantánamo Justice Centre, a non-profit organization, based in Geneva, with an office in London and others to follow in other countries. The GLC has been established by […]

Finally, after nearly three months of uncertainty, the Spanish government has dropped its request for the extradition of Jamil El-Banna and Omar Deghayes, two British residents freed from Guantánamo in December. As discussed here, here and here, the very thought of extraditing these two men, who had suffered so much in US custody, was incomprehensible, […]

Yesterday Omar Deghayes and Jamil El-Banna, two of the three Britons freed from Guantánamo in December, returned to Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London for the third time since their release for an update on the progress — or lack of it — in the Spanish government’s request for their extradition, based on long-discredited allegations that […]

On Wednesday January 9, in a crowded court room at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, a short hearing took place as the next step in the request for the extradition of two former Guantánamo detainees, Jamil El-Banna and Omar Deghayes, which, with astonishing insensitivity, was submitted by the Spanish government on the men’s return from Guantánamo last […]

Little noticed by the wider world, Jamil El-Banna, one of three British residents freed from Guantánamo in December, gave his first interview after his release to Jenny Engstrom of the Willesden and Brent Times. The article was published as the newspaper’s front page story on December 27, but, as it is does not appear to […]

On Wednesday January 9, Jamil El-Banna and Omar Deghayes, two of the three British residents released from Guantánamo before Christmas, will face a brief hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in connection with the request, filed by the Spanish government on their return to the UK, for their extradition in connection with long-discredited terror charges. Sources […]

Celebrations by the families, friends and supporters of the three British residents who returned from Guantánamo on Wednesday –- Omar Deghayes, Jamil El-Banna and Abdulnour Sameur –- were abruptly cut short when the Spanish government immediately requested the extradition of El-Banna and Deghayes for alleged ties with terrorists, even though the supposed evidence in Deghayes’ […]

Three of the six British residents in Guantánamo –- Jamil El-Banna, Omar Deghayes and Abdulnour Sameur –- are on their way back to the UK, and will, hopefully, be able to celebrate Eid al-Adha (the Feast of Sacrifice), which follows the annual hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca). This is the most important feast day in […]

Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison, explains why news that four British residents are to be released from Guantánamo provides grounds for cautious celebration, but also points out that two British residents will not be coming home. I was at a mosque in Glasgow […]

In the most recent of his regular monthly columns for the New Statesman, Clive Stafford Smith, the legal director of Reprieve, the London-based legal charity that represents dozens of Guantánamo detainees, follows up on a disturbing trend that became apparent almost as soon as the British government requested the return of five British residents in […]