User:Geo Swan/gitmo/Shaker Aamer

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'''Shaker Abdur-Raheem Aamer''' is a [[Saudi Arabia]]n citizen. He was captured in [[Afghanistan]] in January 2002, and has been detained in [[Camp Delta]] in the [[United States|US]] naval base at [[Guantanamo Bay]], [[Cuba]]. Aamer moved to the United Kingdom in 1996. He married a British woman. They have four young children. 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]]. 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. In August 2005 he told his lawyer, [[Clive Stafford Smith]], that he had been involved in negotiating the end of a widespread [[hunger strike]] in June and July 2005. Aamer told Smith that [[Colonel]] [[Michael Bumgarner]] was the American negotiator, and that he promised the hunger strikers that they would be treated in accordance with the [[Geneva Conventions]]. Smith predicts that if Aamer was deported back to Saudi Arabia he would face serious consequences: :''"The best information that we have been able to secure from knowledgeable sources suggest that he 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,"'' ==External links== *[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4245517.stm Calls to free Guantanamo father], [[BBC]], February 8, 2005 *[http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2005/09/18/news/hunger.php Guantánamo strike has directors worried], [[New York Times]], September 18, 2005 [[Category:U.S. detainees|Aamer]]