Shaker Aamer

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Shaker Abdur-Raheem Aamer (also known as Shakir Abdurahim Mohamed Ami) is a Saudi Arabian citizen, who was captured in Afghanistan in January 2002 and detained at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay.

Aamer moved to the United Kingdom in 1996. He married a British woman. They have four young children.^[1] Aamer was applying for British citizenship.

At the outbreak of the Invasion of Afghanistan Aamer was said to be working for a Saudi charity in Afghanistan.^[1]

The Americans held nine British citizens in Guantanamo. They were all expatriated to the UK, even though the Americans continue to consider some of them "illegal combatants". After their arrival in the UK the British detainees were all debriefed, and were all promptly released the next day. In addition to Aamer the Americans are known to hold eight other British residents. The British government says that because they are not citizens it can not make representations to the Americans on their behalf.

In February 2005 Aamer's father-in-law, Saeed Siddique says Mr Aamer's wife Zinnira has developed mental problems, and has had to be admitted to hospital.^[1]

With respect to the merits of the charges that he was an Al Quaeda terrorist, Shaker contends that at the time of his arrest in Afghanistan, he was working for a Saudi charity; however, in January 2004, the U.S. and Saudia Arabia froze the assets of the Saudi Al-Haramain Foundation for diverting funds to terrorist activities, including those sponsored by the al-Qaida network.^[2]

Following the failure of all its attempts to evade complying with a court order from US District Court Justice Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense started to release the identities of Guantanamo detainees on March 3, 2006. The DoD released a list of all the detainees whose cases had been considered by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal on April 20, 2006.^[3] On May 15, 2006 the DoD released a list of 759 names which they described as a full list of all the Guantanamo detainees who had been held in military custody.^[4] Both those lists included a detainee named Shakir Abdurahim Mohamed Ami. His Guantanamo detainee ID was 239. According to the second list he was born on December 12, 1968, in Medina, Saudi Arabia.

[edit] Detention issues

Supporters of Shaker contend that the UK should intervene in his detention because he moved to the United Kingdom in 1996, married a British woman, fathered four young children and was in the process of applying for British citizenship. Further, his wife is hospitalized for psychiatric problems.

Shaker is represented by Clive Stafford Smith and Zachary Katznelson. He participated in the prison hunger strike that started in June and ended on July 28, 2005. Shaker says he helped negotiate the end to the summer's first extensive hunger strike. According to Shaker the terms Colonel Michael Bumgarner agreed to included treating the detainees in a manner consistent with the Geneva Convention, allowing the detainees to form a grievance committee.

Stafford Smith said the grievance committee was formed, but that the camp authorities disbanded it after a few days. American spokesmen Major Jeffrey Weir denied that the Americans had ever agreed to any conditions.

Stafford Smith is opposed to repatriating Shaker back to Saudi Arabia because Shaker "would likely face seven or eight years in prison for 'illegally' marrying a foreign citizen, without permission, and for leaving the country without government consent."

On September 18, 2006, Shaker's attorneys filed a 16 page motion arguing for his removal from isolation in Guantanamo Bay prison.^[5] The motion alleges that Shaker had been held in solitary confinement for 360 days at the time of filing, and was tortured by beatings, exposure to temperature extremes, and sleep deprivation, which together caused him to suffer to the point of becoming mentally unbalanced, according to his lawyer, Zachary Katznelson. Shaker's case continues with him still in isolation.