Jamil el-Banna

22:01:00

Sarah Teather (Brent, East) (LD)
This week marks an ignoble anniversary—the fifth anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo Bay. My constituent, Jamil el-Banna, has been held in Guantanamo Bay for four years without trial and without charge. He was picked up in Gambia, where he was on a business trip, and illegally rendered first to Afghanistan and then to Guantanamo Bay. His wife and five British children live in my constituency. Last Easter, working with my local paper, we started a petition for the return of Jamil el-Banna to the UK in order to face a fair trial or to be released. As I hand in this petition, it has an added urgency because his health is failing in Guantanamo Bay owing to poor medical care. Eleven hundred people have signed the petition, with support right across all communities in Brent.

The petition states:

The Petition of the supporters of Jamil el-Banna declares that they wish to see him returned to the UK from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, whereupon he should either face trial or be released.

The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs to make representations to the Government of the United States of America on behalf of Jamil el-Banna for his return to the UK, and further that the Secretary of State reports to the House on the outcome of those representations.

And the Petitioners remain, etc.

To lie upon the Table.