MPs to be met by Save Aamer lobby
Sunday 15 April 2012
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EmailCampaigners demanding the release of the last British resident in Guantanamo will lobby MPs as they return from their recess on Monday.
The Save Shaker Aamer Campaign will stage a demonstration outside Parliament from 1pm to call for urgent to force the US to return the Londoner to Britain.
Supporters will gather opposite the Houses of Parliament wearing orange suits and black hoods like those forced upon Guantanamo prisoners.
MPs have been invited to join the protest in Parliament Square to show their support for the lengthy campaign.
Many MPs have called for Mr Aamer's release through early day motions, letters to the US Congress and messages of support.
Mr Aamer has been held for 10 years without charge or trial despite being cleared for release in 2007 and is believed to have been badly abused.
Fears are growing for his mental and physical wellbeing, with Reprieve director Clive Stafford Smith warning after his last meeting with the detainee that he was "slowly dying."
As well as suffering appalling abuse both in Guantanamo and previously at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, Mr Aamer has spent long periods in solitary confinement and has gone on hunger strike several times over the conditions in which he and the other detainees are being held.
His family and legal representatives have set up a government petition in despair at what they see as the lack of action by the British government to bring him home.
If the petition garners 100,000 signatures it has the potential to trigger a parliamentary debate on the issue.
A campaign spokesman said: "We hope that the demonstration will publicise the need for the government to put their words into action.
"We call on Prime Minister David Cameron, Foreign Secretary William Hague and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to pick up the phone to President Obama and demand Shaker's immediate return.
"The suffering of Shaker Aamer must end. Ten years of abuse and injustice is 10 years too long.
"As Shaker remains silenced in his cell, prevented from telling his story of torture and abuse and denied all his human rights, we will continue to raise our voices for an end to his cruel ordeal," said the spokesman.
The petition calling for Mr Aamer's release can be signed online at http://e-petitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/29410
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