Last Londoner in Guantanamo must get fair trial or freedom

2.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 25th Jul 2008

Sarah at the demonstration

Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP joined the London Guantanamo Campaign outside Downing Street in a demonstration against the continuing illegal detention of London resident Binyam Mohamed, who is spending his 30th birthday in the US prison of Guantanamo Bay.

Binyam Mohamed is the last Londoner to be detained at Guantanamo and he has been a victim of the CIA's programme of extraordinary rendition. Reports suggest that he is in an increasingly fragile state of health.

Liberal Democrat European justice & human rights spokeswoman and London MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford, who was vice-chair of the European Parliament's 2007 inquiry into torture flights, said:

"It's despicable that Britain's Labour government allows Binyam Mohamed's cruel and illegal imprisonment in the Guantanamo black hole to continue, even though they have responsibility for him as a legal resident of the UK. On this landmark of his 30th birthday David Miliband and Jack Straw must finally take a stand and demand the closure of Guantanamo and fair trials or freedom for all its prisoners, not kangaroo courts."

"Britain must refuse to collude any longer with CIA's programme of 'extraordinary rendition' involving kidnap, torture and disappearance. The Human Rights report 2007 by MPs published last week found, unsurprisingly, that US assurances on torture are not to be trusted, so this UK government figleaf must be dropped."