Jamil al-Banna
Encyclopedia
Jamil el-Banna is a Jordan
ian with refugee
status in the United Kingdom
who had been living in north-west London. He is currently on bailed release in the United Kingdom following his release from extrajudicial detention in the United States
in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp
s, in Cuba
.
The Department of Defense reports that el-Banna was born on May 28, 1952,
in Jericho, Turkey
. His wife is quoted as saying that Jamil is not from Jericho, Turkey
but was born in Jericho, West Bank
Jamil El Banna was captured in Gambia in November 2002 and was transferred to the United Kingdom on December 19, 2007.
. At first they were under a kind of unofficial house arrest. They were not formally charged with any crimes under Gambian law. They were told that they would be released when their machinery had been checked to make sure it wasn't something that could be used for terrorism.
They weren't detained in a Gambian jail, but rather in a CIA snatch team safe house, provided by American security officials, guarded by Gambians, but interrogated by Americans.
In late December, 2002 the decision was made to take them from Gambia. The team that arrived to do that wore black uniforms, their faces covered by black balaklavas. They cut their clothes from their bodies, when they bound them for transportation.. They were illegally "rendered" to Bagram Air Base
in Afghanistan
, where he was imprisoned underground in total darkness for weeks. Once in the main portion of the airbase prison, he met Moazzam Begg
whose bookshop he had visited in England. Nicknamed "Kenny Rogers
", he once entertained American guards by singing half a verse Coward of the County. In March 2003 Jamil and Basher al-Rawi were transferred to
Guantanamo Bay.
, quoted in an article in The Guardian
, said Jamil was a participant in both the hunger strike that ended when the camp authorities made promises on July 28, 2005, and a second that started on August 8.
Smith said that Jamil told him that one of the reasons for the second hunger strike was that guards were still searching through the prisoner's copies of the Qur'an
by hand.
An article in The Times
repeated Jamil's claim that his American interrogators told him that MI5
had colluded in Jamil's extraordinary rendition
.
The lawyers of Guantanamo Bay detainees have to hand in all their notes. They are all classified. The lawyers are only allowed to examine their notes in a single secure location outside Washington DC. The Times describes how a section of Stafford Smith's notes were recently declassified:
The Times repeats Jamil's claim that he was offered $10 million, and a US passport, if he would testify against Abu Qatada
. According to The Times:
A November 1, 2006 article in the Willesden & Brent Times reported that el-Banna was allowed a phone call to his wife on October 19, 2006.
It is unusual for detainees to be allowed a phone call to their family. This phone call was el-Banna's first. It is not known why this concession was made, although el-Banna's MP, Sarah Teather
, had previously made representations to US authorities asking for some contact to be allowed.
According to el-Banna' wife:
announced that the UK Government had negotiated the return from Guantanamo of el-Banna's traveling companion, Bisher al-Rawi's.
According to the Associated Press
Beckett issued a statement to Parliament
which said:
Beckett's announcement didn't say anything about el-Banna, or the other remaining former UK residents who remain held in Guantanamo. Jamil's case has caused controversy within the UK as the British Government refuses to make representations on his behalf, due to his not having attained British citizenship before his imprisonment.
All the British nationals imprisoned at Guantanamo were freed before September 2004, following British Government representations.
The UK government warned that the negotiations might take months.
Jamil el-Banna was released from Guantanemo Bay on 18 November 2007 and flown back to Britain.
On his return, he was detained under port and border controls and questioned. On 19 November he was arrested under a Spanish extradition warrant. On 20 December he was released on bail of £50,000, part of which was put up by actress Vanessa Redgrave
; conditions of his bail include observing a curfew and wearing an electronic tag.
On his return, El-Banna and Omar Deghayes
were arrested and questioned, before appearing in court on a Spanish extradition warrant.
He was freed on bail on 20 December, conditions of which include obeying a curfew and wearing an electronic tag.
On Thursday March 6, 2008 Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon
dropped the extradition request on humanitarian grounds.
Garzon based his decision on a medical examination made public on February 12, 2008.
The report said El Banna suffered from: "post-traumatic stress syndrome, severe depression and suicidal tendencies
. Garzon ruled the two men's mental health had deteriorated so badly it would be cruel to prosecute them.
and three other former Guantanamo captives were the result of the use of abusive interrogation techniques.
Al Banna and the other three men:
Hamed Abderrahman Ahmed, Lahcen Ikassrien
, and Omar Deghayes
, had previously faced charges in Spanish courts, based on confessions they made while in US custody.
Their charges had been dropped based on their claims that their confessions were false and were the result of abusive interrogation techniques.
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
ian with refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
status in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
who had been living in north-west London. He is currently on bailed release in the United Kingdom following his release from extrajudicial detention in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp
Guantanamo Bay detainment camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a detainment and interrogation facility of the United States located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. The facility was established in 2002 by the Bush Administration to hold detainees from the war in Afghanistan and later Iraq...
s, in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
.
The Department of Defense reports that el-Banna was born on May 28, 1952,
in Jericho, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. His wife is quoted as saying that Jamil is not from Jericho, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
but was born in Jericho, West Bank
Jericho
Jericho ; is a city located near the Jordan River in the West Bank of the Palestinian territories. It is the capital of the Jericho Governorate and has a population of more than 20,000. Situated well below sea level on an east-west route north of the Dead Sea, Jericho is the lowest permanently...
Jamil El Banna was captured in Gambia in November 2002 and was transferred to the United Kingdom on December 19, 2007.
Jamil el-Banna's capture in Gambia
Jamil and Bisher al-Rawi travelled to Gambia to meet a shipment of machine parts to be used to set up an edible oil factory owned by Basher's brother. They arrived in Gambia on November 7, 2002. He was captured by the Gambian National Intelligence Agency on arrival at Banjul airport in Gambia on November 8, 2002, purportedly on suspicion of alleged links to al-QaedaAl-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
. At first they were under a kind of unofficial house arrest. They were not formally charged with any crimes under Gambian law. They were told that they would be released when their machinery had been checked to make sure it wasn't something that could be used for terrorism.
They weren't detained in a Gambian jail, but rather in a CIA snatch team safe house, provided by American security officials, guarded by Gambians, but interrogated by Americans.
In late December, 2002 the decision was made to take them from Gambia. The team that arrived to do that wore black uniforms, their faces covered by black balaklavas. They cut their clothes from their bodies, when they bound them for transportation.. They were illegally "rendered" to Bagram Air Base
Bagram Air Base
Bagram Airfield, also referred to as Bagram Air Base, is a militarized airport and housing complex that is located next to the ancient city of Bagram, southeast of Charikar in Parwan province of Afghanistan. The base is run by a US Army division headed by a major general. A large part of the base,...
in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, where he was imprisoned underground in total darkness for weeks. Once in the main portion of the airbase prison, he met Moazzam Begg
Moazzam Begg
Moazzam Begg , is a British Pakistani Muslim who was held in extrajudicial detention in the Bagram Theater Internment Facility and the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, in Cuba, by the U.S...
whose bookshop he had visited in England. Nicknamed "Kenny Rogers
Kenny Rogers
Kenneth Donald "Kenny" Rogers is an American singer-songwriter, photographer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur...
", he once entertained American guards by singing half a verse Coward of the County. In March 2003 Jamil and Basher al-Rawi were transferred to
Guantanamo Bay.
Allegations of torture
Jamil's lawyer, Clive Stafford SmithClive Stafford Smith
Clive Adrian Stafford Smith OBE is a British [see talk] lawyer who specialises in the areas of civil rights and the death penalty in the United States of America....
, quoted in an article in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, said Jamil was a participant in both the hunger strike that ended when the camp authorities made promises on July 28, 2005, and a second that started on August 8.
Smith said that Jamil told him that one of the reasons for the second hunger strike was that guards were still searching through the prisoner's copies of the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
by hand.
An article in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
repeated Jamil's claim that his American interrogators told him that MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
had colluded in Jamil's extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition is the abduction and illegal transfer of a person from one nation to another. "Torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the United States and the United Kingdom have transferred suspected terrorists to other countries in order to torture the...
.
The lawyers of Guantanamo Bay detainees have to hand in all their notes. They are all classified. The lawyers are only allowed to examine their notes in a single secure location outside Washington DC. The Times describes how a section of Stafford Smith's notes were recently declassified:
- "In Cuba one interrogator is alleged to have told el-Banna: 'Why are you angry at America? It is your government, Britain, the MI5, who called the CIA and told them you and Bisher were in Gambia and to come and get you. Britain gave everything to us. Britain sold you out to the CIA.'”
The Times repeats Jamil's claim that he was offered $10 million, and a US passport, if he would testify against Abu Qatada
Abu Qatada
Abû-Qatâda al-Filisṭînî , sometimes called Abû-Omar is an Islamist militant. Under the name Omar Mahmoud Othman , he is under worldwide embargo by the United Nations Security Council Committee 1267 for his affiliation with al-Qaeda...
. According to The Times:
- "When he refused, an interrogator told him: 'I am going to London . . . I am going to fuck your wife. Your wife is going to be my bitch. Maybe you’ll never see your children again.'"
Contact with his family
El-Banna is a father of five. His youngest daughter was born after his capture.A November 1, 2006 article in the Willesden & Brent Times reported that el-Banna was allowed a phone call to his wife on October 19, 2006.
It is unusual for detainees to be allowed a phone call to their family. This phone call was el-Banna's first. It is not known why this concession was made, although el-Banna's MP, Sarah Teather
Sarah Teather
Sarah Louise Teather is a British Liberal Democrat politician, Member of Parliament for Brent Central, Minister of State at the Department for Education, and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Guantanamo Bay....
, had previously made representations to US authorities asking for some contact to be allowed.
According to el-Banna' wife:
Bisher al-Rawi's release
On Thursday March 29, 2007, UK Foreign Secretary Margaret BeckettMargaret Beckett
Margaret Mary Beckett is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Derby South since 1983, rising to become the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party under John Smith, from 18 July 1992 to 12 May 1994, and briefly serving as Leader of the Party following Smith's death...
announced that the UK Government had negotiated the return from Guantanamo of el-Banna's traveling companion, Bisher al-Rawi's.
According to the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
Beckett issued a statement to Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
which said:
Beckett's announcement didn't say anything about el-Banna, or the other remaining former UK residents who remain held in Guantanamo. Jamil's case has caused controversy within the UK as the British Government refuses to make representations on his behalf, due to his not having attained British citizenship before his imprisonment.
All the British nationals imprisoned at Guantanamo were freed before September 2004, following British Government representations.
Release
On August 7, 2007 the United Kingdom government requested the release of Jamil el-Banna and four other men who had been legal British residents without being British citizens.The UK government warned that the negotiations might take months.
Jamil el-Banna was released from Guantanemo Bay on 18 November 2007 and flown back to Britain.
On his return, he was detained under port and border controls and questioned. On 19 November he was arrested under a Spanish extradition warrant. On 20 December he was released on bail of £50,000, part of which was put up by actress Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
; conditions of his bail include observing a curfew and wearing an electronic tag.
On his return, El-Banna and Omar Deghayes
Omar Deghayes
Omar Deghayes is a Libyan citizen with residency status in the United Kingdom, who was arrested in Pakistan in 2002. He currently lives in the United Kingdom....
were arrested and questioned, before appearing in court on a Spanish extradition warrant.
He was freed on bail on 20 December, conditions of which include obeying a curfew and wearing an electronic tag.
On Thursday March 6, 2008 Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon
Baltasar Garzón
Baltasar Garzón Real is a Spanish jurist who served on Spain's central criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional. He was the examining magistrate of the Juzgado Central de Instrucción No...
dropped the extradition request on humanitarian grounds.
Garzon based his decision on a medical examination made public on February 12, 2008.
The report said El Banna suffered from: "post-traumatic stress syndrome, severe depression and suicidal tendencies
Suicidal tendencies
Suicidal tendencies is the propensity for a person to have suicidal ideation or to make suicide attempts. It may also refer to:* Suicidal Tendencies, a band that was founded in Venice, Los Angeles, California, in 1981 by the leader and only permanent member, singer Mike Muir* Suicide, the act of a...
. Garzon ruled the two men's mental health had deteriorated so badly it would be cruel to prosecute them.
Torture claims investigation
On April 29, 2009, that Spanish investigating magistrate Baltazar Garzon initiated a formal investigation into whether confessions from Ikassrien,and three other former Guantanamo captives were the result of the use of abusive interrogation techniques.
Al Banna and the other three men:
Hamed Abderrahman Ahmed, Lahcen Ikassrien
Lahcen Ikassrien
Lahcen Ikassrien is a citizen of Morocco who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.Ikassrien's Guantanamo ISN was 72....
, and Omar Deghayes
Omar Deghayes
Omar Deghayes is a Libyan citizen with residency status in the United Kingdom, who was arrested in Pakistan in 2002. He currently lives in the United Kingdom....
, had previously faced charges in Spanish courts, based on confessions they made while in US custody.
Their charges had been dropped based on their claims that their confessions were false and were the result of abusive interrogation techniques.