For Shaker Aamer, the last British resident held in the American prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, it has been a long haul.
Bounty hunters captured Aamer in Afghanistan in 2001 and turned him over to the United States. He was cleared for release from Guantanamo in 2007. And on Friday, eight years later, he finally returned home to the UK, arriving around 1 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET).
It has been a long haul for his family as well.
‘I want my dad back tomorrow’
In 2005, Aamer’s daughter Johina, then 7, wrote a letter to British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, asking him to help obtain her father’s release. She posted a copy of the letter on her Twitter account Friday.
“He used to love me when he was with us all,” she wrote. “We are all sad and depressed. We used to cry a lot for him. Sometimes my mum cries a lot on her bed or on her chair and on the floor and I don’t know how to stop her. She used to cry then I cried.
“I want my dad back tomorrow.”
UK officials welcome release
The British Foreign Office confirmed that Aamer was back in the UK.
“It has been a longstanding government policy to secure Mr. Aamer’s return to the UK,” a Foreign Office representative said. “We welcome his release and continue to support President Obama’s commitment to closing the detention facility at Guantanamo.”
And Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, welcomed Aamer’s release as well.
“Great news,” Corbyn tweeted. “Huge congratulations to his family, Reprieve, Shaker campaign!”
An alleged confession
The United States had contended that Aamer was an enemy fighter and an aide of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. He was allegedly in Afghanistan on a false British passport.
He also allegedly confessed before he was taken to Guantanamo Bay.
Aamer’s family and supporters say he was in Afghanistan doing charity work. And the confession, according to the London-based human rights group Reprieve, came under torture.
With no charges ever filed, and no evidence presented and tested at a trial, it is hard to judge between the competing allegations.
Wife and children live in UK
What is beyond doubt is that Aamer spent a long time in Guantanamo, even after he was cleared for release in 2007.
According to Reprieve, the release process “required no fewer than six U.S. government agencies to agree that he posed no threat to the U.S. or its allies.” And Aamer spent another eight years in Guantanamo before that process was complete.
Aamer is a Saudi national who is a permanent resident of Britain. He is married to a British woman; his wife and four children live in Britain.
He will see the youngest of his children for the first time Friday.