16 Dec 2012

British comic Frankie Boyle aids Guantanamo inmate’s lawsuit against MI6

Shaker Aamer (image from http://alhittin.com)
RT: Frankie Boyle, best known for his controversial jokes and caustic humor, has donated £50,000 to help Britain’s last prisoner languishing in Guantanamo, Shaker Aamer, to sue MI6.
Frankie Boyle – a controversy courting British comic- has announced he is giving the £50,000 he won in compensation from a recent libel victory against the Daily Mirror newspaper towards a landmark legal attempt to sue Britain’s security services over accusations they have defamed Shaker Aamer.
Boyle unveiled his plan with Reprive, the British-American charity, which has a long history of representing Guantanamo inmates.
The director of Reprieve Clive Stafford Smith admitted that the legal action will chart untested legal waters, but that it was important they are explored.
“If the Daily Mirror says something bad about Frankie that humiliates him then he has the right to sue. If, on the other hand, a far more powerful organization, the British government and their agents, say something about Shaker – whereby instead of being humiliated he’s banged up in prison for eleven years for something he patently didn’t do and something he’s never been charged with – then the British government’s position is that Shakar can do nothing,” he explained.
Aamer has been cleared for release by the US, but has not yet been released because the US insists on sending him to Saudi Arabia. Although he has Saudi nationality with his British residency, his wife and four children live in London. The British government is supportive of him returning to the UK but the Americans have so far refused to hand him over.

A spokesman for the UK Foreign Office told the Independent that they could not comment on any ongoing legal proceedings but that the security services are protected by legal privilege.
Stafford Smith rejects this argument and says that because Shakar hasn’t broken any law or been prosecuted for anything then the UK government would have no such privilege.
Aamer was working for a Saudi charity when the Americans invaded Afghanistan in 2001. He was picked up by the Northern Alliance and handed over to the Americans who transferred him to Guantanamo under the belief he was a “recruiter, financier and facilitator” for al-Qaeda.
No evidence for this was found and he was cleared by the Bush administration in 2007.
He claims that he was visited while in custody several times by British secret service agents who were present while he was beaten.He alleges he was offered two choices, to spy on suspected jihadists in the UK, or remain in US custody.
The Independent newspaper revealed in January 2012, that the British government has spent £274,345 in court to prevent Aarer’s lawyers gaining access to evidence, which may prove his innocence.

Source

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