By: Priscila Néri, Posted: Feb 23 09

Regions: Global, United States

Issues: Arbitrary arrest, Detention, Torture

Tags: Binyam Mohamed, extraordinary rendition, guantanamo, military commissions, Outlawed, secret prisons, torture, war on terror

--- " I hope you will understand that after everything I've been through, I am neither physically nor mentally capable of facing the media on the moment of my arrival back to Britain (...) While I want to recover, I also know I have an obligation to the people who still remain in those torture chambers (...) There are still 241 Muslim prisoners in Guantanamo." Binyam Mohamed---

This morning, Binyam Mohamed - a former British resident who has been held in U.S. captivity without trial for almost seven years - was the first prisoner released from the Guantanamo Bay detention center since President Barack Obama took office in January.  He is seen in this BBC video arriving at London's RAF Northolt airport just before being reunited with his family.  Read Binyam Mohamed's full statement on Reprieve's website.

Mohamed was first arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and then subject to extraordinary rendition in Morocco, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo, where he was brutally tortured and denied proper legal defense.  Last week, as Jenni Wolfson reported in this post, Mohamed's lawyers appealed to President Obama requesting that he make public all the classified information about the case.  

Now that Mohamed has been freed, lawyers in the UK and US continue to work for the release of a series of documents and photographs that are believed to contain evidence of the torture and abuse Mohamed suffered whilst in American custody (more in the Guardian and New York Times).

Binyam Mohamed's harrowing story is featured in Outlawed: Extraordinary Rendition, Torture and Disappearances, where his family reads from his unclassified diary that he kept whilst in detention. Here are the excerpts (watch the full version here): 

Outlawed was produced by WITNESS in partnership with 14 non-profit organizations worldwide, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Reprieve, American Civil Liberties Union, and others.  The video sought to draw attention to the post-9/11 phenomenon of extraordinary rendition, secret detentions, and torture and call for an end to these human rights abuses. 

And although Mohamed's release is a cause for celebration, much remains to be done.  As Mohamed reminds us in his statement, "there are still 241 Muslim prisoners in Guantanamo. Many have long since been cleared even by the US military, yet cannot go anywhere as they face persecution. For example, Ahmed Belbacha lived here in Britain, and desperately needs a home. Then there are thousands of other prisoners held by the US elsewhere around the world, with no charges, and without access to their families."

Watch more videos on Guantanamo here.  If you want to get involved, here are three ways to take action:

1) Join the ACLU in its Close Gitmo campaign

2) Sign Amnesty's 100 Days Petition calling on President Obama to "promptly charge Guantanamo detainees with recognisable criminal offenses or release them immediately."

3) Visit the UK's National Guantanamo Coalition to read more about Binyam Mohamed's case and to take action