- Four men who had been detained at Guantanamo Bay for
up to three years before being returned to the UK were last night released
without charge, police said.
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- They had been arrested on their return to Britain on
Tuesday from Guant·namo, but were last night enjoying their first
moments of freedom.
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- Moazzam Begg, from Birmingham, Feroz Abbasi, from Croydon,
south London, Martin Mubanga, from Wembley, north-west London, and Richard
Belmar from St John's Wood, north-west London, were all released from Paddington
Green station.
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- They all had been held for almost 28 hours. Questioning
of the four Britons began shortly after midday, but with the men not commenting
during interview, and with the confessions they had made in Guantanamo
- allegedly after torture - being inadmissible, the police had no further
justification to hold them.
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- Police sources had told the Guardian that unless the
men made admissions, they would have to be released.
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- The men were driven away from the top-security police
station just before 9pm and taken to meet their families. They are now
free to try to rebuild their lives and recover from an ordeal which is
alleged to have included repeated abuses and torture by their US captors.
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- A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "Shortly before
9pm four men, arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 on January 25, were
released without charge. This followed liaison between police and the Crown
Prosecution Service. The men were interviewed by MPS Anti-Terrorist officers
after being arrested under Section 41 of the Act which refers to the alleged
involvement in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism."
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- Neil Durkin, for Amnesty International UK, said: "We've
always said that they shouldn't be held a minute longer than necessary
back in the UK. They have already been held for three years, and upwards
of three years in some cases."
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- He added that the men had been interrogated in Guantanamo
Bay and some in Afghanistan. "There is an obligation on the UK authority
to listen carefully to allegations - and act on [them]."
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- Mark Oaten, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman,
said: "While it is welcome news that the police have quickly completed
their inquiries, this move highlights yet again the injustice of holding
these men captive for the last three years."
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- Earlier in the day further details emerged of the alleged
previous treatment of the men.
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- Gareth Peirce, the British lawyer, said Mr Begg, her
client, had changed for the worse since she saw him four years ago. "His
face is the face of someone who has been through a severe ordeal. He looks
like he has been to hell and back."
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- Mr Begg was asked by police whom he knew in the UK, what
mosques he had attended and where he had been abroad.
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- Police say that they needed to question the four because
of intelligence suggesting they could threated public safety.
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- Mr Begg's US lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, who saw his
client in Guantanamo Bay earlier this month, said the captive had alleged
persistent beatings, death threats and psychological torture first at Bagram
airbase in Afghanistan, then at Guantanamo.
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- The Pentagon is investigating the abuse and torture allegations
after concerns were raised by the FBI.
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- In 2002, Mr Begg was allegedly subjected to a month of
daily beatings and threatened with death. He is also alleged to have been
told by US interrogators that he would be sent to Egypt where the "real"
torture would begin. In Guantanamo he was kept in solitary confinement
for 19 months.
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- The Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir John Stevens,
has made it clear that no evidence from Guantanamo Bay would be admissible
in court.
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- Another of the released men, Feroz Abbasi, 24, was questioned
about how he came to be in Afghanistan where it is alleged he was captured
by Northern Alliance forces in December 2001 while fighting for al-Qaida.
Mr Abbasi's lawyer, Louise Christian, said that her client had been interviewed
twice by British anti-terrorism police.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2005
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1399346,00.html
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