Russians in Guantanamo

My report about, and photos from the UK Guantánamo Network’s march and rally for the closure of Guantánamo in London on Saturday (January 20). Dozens of campaigners in orange jumpsuits and hoods marched up Whitehall from the Houses of Parliament to Trafalgar Square, where the rally was held, with speakers including Apsana Begum MP and myself, and afterwards a letter was handed in to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at 10 Downing Street.

The shameful story of Ravil Mingazov, a Russian Tatar held at Guantánamo for 14 years, then sent to the UAE, where he has been imprisoned for nearly seven years, in harsh conditions, despite having been promised that he would be helped to rebuild his life as a free man. His son and wife were granted asylum in the UK in 2014, and campaigners here in the UK are currently involved in efforts to persuade the British government to bring him to the UK to rejoin his family.

My response to UN human rights experts condemning the UAE for its proposal to forcibly repatriate Ravil Mingazov, a Russian sent to the UAE from Guantánamo in 2016, even though he faces “substantial risk of torture” in his home country. I call on the US government to respond by urgently appointing a Special Envoy for Guantánamo Closure to intervene of Mingazov’s behalf — and also on behalf of 19 other men sent to the UAE from Guantánamo (18 Yemenis and an Afghan). All have been subjected to arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance since their resettlement, despite having been promised their freedom when they were first transferred.

Please support my work as a reader-funded journalist! I’m currently trying to raise $2500 (£2000) to support my writing and campaigning on Guantánamo and related issues over the next three months of the Trump administration. If you can help, please click on the button below to donate via PayPal.   I wrote the following article, […]

Please support my work as a reader-funded journalist! I’m currently trying to raise $2500 (£2000) to support my writing and campaigning on Guantánamo and related issues over the next three months of the Trump administration.   I wrote the following article for the “Close Guantánamo” website, which I established in January 2012, on the 10th anniversary […]

Please support my work! I’m currently trying to raise $2500 (£2000) to support my writing and campaigning on Guantánamo and related issues over the first two months of the Trump administration.   With Donald Trump promising, in a draft executive order leaked to the New York Times, to keep Guantánamo open, to stop all releases […]

So after last week’s news that torture victim and best-selling author Mohamedou Ould Slahi has been approved for release from Guantánamo by a Periodic Review Board, there has been more good news this week, as Ravil Mingazov, the last Russian in the prison, has also been approved for release (on July 21), bringing to 30 […]

Last week, two more Periodic Review Boards took place — the 48th and 49th — for the last Russian prisoner held at Guantánamo, Ravil Mingazov, and for Ghassan al-Sharbi, a Saudi. Both men were seized in Faisalabad on March 28, 2002, on the day that Abu Zubaydah, regarded as a “high-value detainee,” was seized. The […]

Last week, I was delighted to take part in an hour-long Guantánamo special on RT America, presented by Simone del Rosario, who had recently visited the prison. Simone began by noting that it was the tenth anniversary of three deaths at Guantánamo — 22-year old Yasser Talal al-Zahrani, a Saudi, who was just 17 years […]

Yesterday I published an article about the most recent Periodic Review Board to take place at Guantánamo, and I was reminded of how I’ve overlooked a couple of interesting articles about the PRBs published in the Guardian over the last six weeks. When it comes to President Obama’s intention to close Guantánamo before he leaves […]