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UK government under pressure over jail release

The British government was under pressure on Sunday to allow a London man held in Guantanamo Bay for four years to return to Britain after the US cleared him for release from the notorious prison.

Jamil el-Banna was detained by the US in 2002 after Britain sent the CIA false information about him. He had also failed to accept an MI5 (British intelligence) offer to turn informant.

If refused entry to Britain, Banna could be returned to face torture in his native Jordan, from where he fled to Britain in 1994 after alleging ill treatment.

Speaking through his lawyer from Guantanamo, Banna described how he longed to be reunited with his wife and five children, and denied involvement in terrorism.

"They should admit the truth -- that they have been holding an innocent man for four-and-a-half years. I just want to be home with my family," he said.

Banna's lawyers will launch an emergency court battle within days to seek a guarantee from the government that he will be allowed to return to the UK and be reunited with his family. Today they will mark his 45th birthday but friends and lawyers fear he faces a "nightmare choice" between languishing in Guantanamo or facing torture in Jordan.

The Blair government, despite its criticism of Guantanamo, has refused to help Banna during his incarceration. At least two other former British resident inmates who were cleared for release have been barred from returning to the UK.

Banna's MP, Liberal Democrat Sarah Teather, said ministers should let him return home to northwest London: "It would be a moral outrage if this government now stood idly by and let him be sent to a country where they know his safety would be at risk."

Banna was granted refugee status by Britain after it was accepted he had been tortured in Jordan.

In 2002 he was seized by the CIA after MI5 wrongly told the US that his traveling companion was carrying bomb parts on a business trip to Gambia.

He was taken to Bagram airbase in Afghanistan and then to Guantanamo. He alleges ill treatment in both places and has never been charged with any offence.

This month Banna was seen in Guantanamo by his lawyer, Zachary Katznelson from the group Reprieve. According to Katznelson's transcript of the meeting, Banna said: "The British government has let me stay here for four-and-a-half years. What crime did I commit? Together with the Americans, they have kept me from my children. They have deprived me of the chance to see them grow up, to hold them, to kiss them, to laugh with them, to play with them. There is no way to turn back time, to give me back those moments."

During the visit, Banna was allowed to watch a video of his children, including his first sighting of his four-year-old daughter Maryam.

"If there is any justice and fairness in Britain, the British government should tell the Americans immediately: `You made a mistake; it is time to get him [Jamil] out of there.' Just tell me you are sorry, that you made a mistake. If they apologized, I would forgive them," he said.

Banna came to the attention of MI5 because he knew Abu Qatada, the cleric accused of being al-Qaeda's spiritual leader in Europe. Days before the trip to Gambia an MI5 agent tried to recruit him. He is also wanted in Spain, which is interested in extraditing him.
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