Three men detained by British police after their release from Guan-tanamo Bay have been reunited with their families for the first time in nearly five years, although two face extradition to Spain.
One man, Abdennour Samuer, 34, was released by counterterrorism police without charge, but the other two were arrested early on Thursday. Spain accuses Jamil el-Banna, 45, and Omar Deghayes, 38, of being members of an al-Qaeda cell in Madrid. The pair were released on bail yesterday -- £40,000 (US$79,700) of it put up by the actor Vanessa Redgrave -- pending a full hearing of the extradition request.
Banna left court to see his five children for the first time in five years. His youngest daughter was born after his capture by the US and has never met her father.
PHOTO: AP
Outside court Banna, looking exhausted, said: "I am tired, I want to go home and see my children."
Deghayes was granted bail late on Thursday by senior district judge Timothy Workman after a hearing at City of Westminster magistrates court.
After the hearing his mother, Zohra Zewawi, said: "I'm really really happy, yesterday I could not sleep. All today I have been so stressed but now I'm so happy."
The pair were each required to pay £50,000 surety and abide by tough conditions, including a curfew, electronic tags and not traveling abroad. In granting bail Workman dismissed claims from the crown that they would flee abroad or engage in terrorist acts.
Melanie Cumberland, representing the Spanish government, told the court that a Spanish judge had issued warrants for the arrest of the men on Wednesday, the day they flew back to Britain from Guantanamo.
Cumberland said Banna had been a member of the Islamic Alliance based in Madrid and was an associate of Imad Yarkas, convicted by a Spanish court of terrorism offenses. Spain alleges Banna and Deghayes belonged to the cell which provided members to train in Afghan and Indonesian terror camps. The cell was also alleged to have raised funds for terrorism and to have spread al-Qaeda propaganda.
But Ed Fitzgerald, lawyer for both men, accused the crown of making wild accusations "for which there was no evidence."
He said there was evidence that neither the US nor UK authorities considered the men to pose a significant danger.
A US administrative review board which met at Guantanamo Bay had decided in May that Banna did not pose a risk to the US or its allies. It had also decided the same for Deghayes. British counterterrorism police had questioned both men and decided that they should not be charged with any offense.
Fitzgerald said "the centerpiece" of the Spanish case was a video allegedly showing Deghayes taking part in terrorist acts in Dagestan. But an expert had concluded the person in the video was a Chechen fighter who had died years ago.
Granting bail to Banna, Workman said that the "prosecution concerns about offenses being committed are outweighed by the detailed review being carried out in the US."
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS