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Moazzam Begg was one of nine British men who were held at Camp X-Ray, Guantanamo Bay by the government of the United States of America. He was released from detention on 25 January 2005 along with Feroz Abbasi, Martin Mubanga and Richard Belmar. Five other British men (Ruhal Ahmed, Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, Tarek Dergoul and Jamal Udeen) were released in March 2004. At least four other former British residents remain detained in Guantanamo Bay.
Mr Begg is originally from Sparkbrook, a suburb of Birmingham. His father, Azmat Begg, was born in India. Moazzam Begg, his wife Sally and three young children moved to Kabul, Afghanistan, in mid 2001 in order fulfil his dream of being a teacher, a charity worker at a school. With the war in Afghanistan in 2001, the family decided to wait out the hostilities in neighbouring Pakistan. He was seized in Islamabad in February 2002 by the CIA. No reasons have been given, but it has been suggested that that his name was financially linked to the 11 September 2001 hijackers. His family insist that this is a case of mistaken identity.
Begg had been part of the british jihadist scene for many years, he was arrsted in 2000 during a raid on the al Ansar bookshop in Birmingham, which he had founded. The bookshop sells Jihadi propaganda videos featuring Osama bin Ladin and other extremists [see their website at www.tibyan.net]
He was held at Bagram airbase for around a year, then transferred to Guantanamo Bay.
From his original detainment up to the time of his release, he was held for a total of just under three years, much of that time in solitary confinement. He had not been charged with any crime or seen his lawyers during that time. The United States considers Begg an unlawful combatant. US government officials claim that he trained at al-Qaeda terrorist camps in Afghanistan. [1] (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/08/wguan08.xml)
It has been reported in mid-November 2004 that the Britons in Guantanamo Bay "expect to face charges within six weeks". [2] (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/11/14/nguan14.xml). However by the end of December 2004 this time has passed without any news of charges being laid.
Late in 2004 a British lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, was allowed to visit
Moazzam Begg and Richard Belmar. Mr Smith said that he had heard "credible and consistent evidence" from Mr. Begg of torture, including the strappado [3] (http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2005-01/02/article05.shtml) [4] (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1382033,00.html)
Letter
His British lawyer received a handwritten letter from him, written on 12 July 2004. This letter is unusual in that it was the first letter to come from a Guantanamo bay prisoner without having been censored by the American officials. It is not clear how this letter escaped the censor. It is not known if he wrote similar letters before. His mental state was unclear, however the language of the letter is coherent and purposeful. The full text of the letter was passed to Mr. Begg's American lawyer, thence to his British lawyer.
Several phrases from this letter have been discussed in the media, the most quotable being the "threats of torture, actual torture, death threats, racial and religious abuse", the "cruel and unusual treatment" and "documents ... were signed under duress". The phrase "the deaths of two fellow detainees, at the hands of US military personnel, to which I myself was partially witness" has also attracted much attention, as has his insistence that "I am a law abiding citizen of the UK, and attest vehemently to my innocence, before God and the law, of any crime - though none has even been alleged".
To those who are concerned that the prolonged detentions at Guantanamo Bay without charge or trial at represent a serious human rights and civil liberties infringment, Moazzam Begg embodies the injustices that they see present here. This is helped by him being a citizen of a first-world country allied to the USA in the War on Terror, since his family and lawyers have publicised his case and insisted on his innocence, and since he has managed to communicate his own insistence of innocence.
The Pentagon has in response commented that torture is prohibited at Guantanamo bay, that all credible allegations of abuse are investigated, and that the "the United States operates a safe, humane and professional detention operation at Guantanamo that is providing valuable information on the War on Terror."
Release
On Monday 11 January 2005, the British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw announced that the four Britons in Guantanamo Bay: Moazzam Begg, Martin Mubanga, Richard Belmar and Feroz Abbasi, will be returned to Britain "within weeks" after "intensive and complex discussions" with the US government. Though they are still regarded as "enemy combatants" by the US government, no specific charges have been brought against any of them.
On Tuesday 25 January 2005 Begg, along with the three other British citizens, was flown back to the United Kingdom by an RAF aircraft. On arrival they were arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police and taken to Paddington Green police station for questioning under the Terrorism Act 2000. By 9pm on Wednesday 26 January, all four had been released without charge.
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