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<font size=3>Guantanamo detainee arrives in UK <br>
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<img src="http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images//2009/2/23/200922315115286580_5.jpg" width=309 height=206 alt="[]">
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</font><font face="Verdana" size=3><b>Binyam Mohamed was held at
Guantanamo Bay for more than four years without charge [BBC
NEWS]</b></font> <br>
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Binyam Mohamed, a former British resident held at Guantanamo Bay, has
arrived in the United Kingdom after being released from the United States
prison camp.<br><br>
Mohamed, who landed at RAF Northolt in London, has spent seven years in
US captivity without charge, with more than four of those at the camp in
Cuba.<br><br>
He claims he was tortured in custody, after being arrested in Pakistan in
2002 on suspicion of training and plotting to set off a radioactive
bomb.<br><br>
Mohamed, whose British residency has expired, was accompanied by UK
police officers and could be sent back to his native Ethiopia.<br><br>
<b>US accused<br><br>
</b>In a statement, Mohamed said: "I have been through an experience
that I never thought to encounter in my darkest nightmares.<br><br>
"Before this ordeal, 'torture' was an abstract word for me. I could
never have imagined that I would be its victim.<br><br>
"It is difficult for me to believe that I was abducted, hauled from
one country to the next, and tortured in medieval ways, all orchestrated
by the United States government."<br><br>
Clive Stafford Smith, Mohamed's lawyer and the founder of Reprieve, a
UK-based legal action charity, said he hoped the British government would
"allow Binyam's immediate release".<br><br>
Stafford Smith said: "He is a victim who has suffered more than any
human being should ever suffer.<br><br>
"He just wants to go somewhere very quiet and try to recover. Every
moment that he is held compounds the abuse he has endured."<br><br>
<b>Immigration status<br><br>
</b>In a statement, Reprieve said Mohamed said he wished to thank
"all those in Britain who have worked for his freedom, including
many members of the British government".<br><br>
<img src="http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images//2009/1/22/2009122171912436734_3.jpg" alt="[]">
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<b> Barack Obama has signed an executive order to close the prison
at Guantanamo Bay [AFP]</b> <br>
Binyam's sister Zuhra said she was "so glad and so happy, more than
words can express". <br><br>
"I am so thankful for everything that was done for Binyam to make
this day come true," she said.<br><br>
In his statement, Mohamed accused the British government of colluding
with foreign governments during his alleged abuse and torture.<br><br>
He said: "For myself, the very worst moment came when I realised in
Morocco that the people who were torturing me were receiving questions
and materials from British intelligence.<br><br>
"I had met with British intelligence in Pakistan. I had been open
with them. Yet the very people who I had hoped would come to my rescue, I
later realised, had allied themselves with my abusers."<br><br>
Mohamed originally entered the UK as an Ethiopian refugee when he was a
teenager and British authorities say they will review his immigration
status when he returns to the country.<br><br>
<b>Hunger strike<br><br>
</b>The decision to release Mohamed follows a formal request by London to
Washington in August 2007, asking for the remaining five British
residents held at the camp on Cuba to be released.<br><br>
The transfer will be the first of a Guantanamo prisoner since Barack
Obama, the US president, who has pledged to close the camp, took office
last month.<br><br>
Mohamed says he was tortured and abused by foreign agents while in
custody in Pakistan and later in Morocco, before being transferred to
Guantanamo in 2004.<br><br>
But Washington has denied that he was subjected to "extraordinary
rendition", and Morocco said it never held him.<br><br>
British diplomats and a doctor travelled to Guantanamo Bay more than a
week ago to assess Mohamed's medical condition.<br><br>
He had been on a hunger strike for more than a month and his lawyers were
concerned that he could die.<br><br>
Mohamed was persuaded to end his hunger strike and assessed to be healthy
enough to be flown back to Britain.<br><br>
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