رسالة من محامي السجين عمرالدغيس (إبن الشهيد عامر الدغيس) إلى وزير الخارجية البريطانية
سلمت باليد في 15 فبراير 2005
JUSTICE IN EXILE
c/o Reprieve
65 Fleet Street
London ECAY 1HS
020 7353 4640 Fax: 020 7353 4641
e-mail: clivessgb@aol.com
URGENT – BY HAND DELIVERY
Rt. Hon. Jack Straw
Foreign Secretary
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street
London SW1A 2AA
Re: Omar Deghayes, British Resident at GuantánamoBay
Dear Mr. Straw:
I wrote to urgently about the status of Mrs. Deghayes on January 19th, and I have not yet received a reply. I returned this morning from Washington, D.C., where I am glad to say I was able to secure the declassification of information about Mr. Deghayes’ perilous situation that I was previously forbidden from revealing by the US censorship laws. This evidence makes it morally (and legally) imperative that the government respond at once.
The plight of all prisoners in Guantanamo Bay is, according to your own well-chosen word, “unacceptable.” Mr. Deghayes’ situation is far worse than ‘average’.
While Mr. Deghayes is not technically a British citizen, we clearly have a legal obligation to him as a refugee, and the strongest moral obligation to secure his release and return to this country to avoid his persecution by Col. Gaddafi.
* * *
Like you and me, my client’s father Amer Deghayes was a lawyer. He was devoted Anglophile, and a dedicated opponent of the despotic regime of Col. Gaddafi. His lifelong dream was to bring democratic reform to Libya, unfortunately, when Omar was a child, Amer was assassinated on Gaddafi’s order when he refused to be co-opted into the regime. He died during a torture session. It is extraordinarily sad that Omar has himself already been the victim of torture, albeit at the hands of the Americans. Because the evidence has just been declassified, I can now reveal that in one of these abuse sessions, U.S. personnel blinded him permanently in one eye. I can also reveal that, if he ever gets out of the black hole that is Guantánamo, Col. Gaddafi’s men have threatened to kill him if he ends up back in Libya.
Britain has recognized Omar Deghayes’ refugee status for almost twenty years. All of his family now holds British nationality, and he had applied for it himself. The only reason he did not do this long ago is that he wished to pursue his father’s laudable democratic ambition for Libya. However, he came to recognize that he needed a British passport to allow him to pursue this goal without fear. Omar is truly British in his upbringing and attachments. Indeed, since he came here in 1996, he has spent more in this country than I have, and I challenge anyone to doubt my own dedication to that ideals of this nation. Omar has written extensively on the need to use non-violent means to achieve democracy, drawing on the example of Gandhi and Mandela.
The British government is reported to have taken the position that Omar Deghayes must apply to the Libyan government for assistance. This is obscene. I am now in a position to reveal that Omar has received a visit from the Libyan government. Four Libyan officials visited him last September (they did not give names, and Omar describes them by number).
Omar tried to be as polite as possible to avoid antagonizing them. However, among the various threats that they leveled at him were:
The Libyans emphasized to Omar: “You have no problems with the US. Your problems are with us.” They told him that he would have to answer for what he had done in opposition to the Gaddafi regime.
Libyan #2 said: “It is clear as the Sun that you, Omar Amer Deghayes, are one of the opposistion.” (The meaning of this was ‘clear as the sun’ to Omar – “Opposition” in Libya means hanging in the streets, as Gaddafi’s slogan says.”)
They showed Omar pictures of two people who had been turned over to them after the Libyan government had pursued them through China and Iran.They said one was Sami Abu Munder. The other was Abdullah Sadiq. Munder is a well known writer who has penned many pieces in opposistion to Gaddafi’s dictatorship. Libyan #3 siad, “Sami Abu Munder said that you are a close friend of his. You and him joked about a lot when you were both living in London.” Omar understood this to mean that he would suffer the same fate as Munder and Sadiq.
Both men had obviously been very badly abused. Libyan #2 appeared in some of the pictures, smiling at the camera. Libyan #2 pointed himself out cheerfully to Omar. He said, “Do not say these are faked pictures; they are real and the world today is very small. Nobody can hide from us.” It is clear from the manner in which he was shown the pictures that Omar was being promised the same kind of treatement, and told that his wife and child were withing Col. Gaddafi’s reach.
Libyan #3 wanted to know whether Omar was applying for British nationality, to determine whether there was any chance that the British would stop him from being sent back to Libya. Indeed, the British definitely should intervene in his behalf, because we have contributed to his predicament. As I will be glad to detail to you, British Intelligence made statements to the Americans about Omar’s opposition to the Gaddafi dictatorship. Druing their harangue against Omar Deghayes, Libyan #3 kept emphasizing the information that the Americans had passed onto them.
Libyan #2 said that God knows, who is the misguided one, and who is on the correct path, and “when we bring you to Libya, I will personally teach you the meaning of this.”
Perhaps most directly of all, Libyan #2 said, “In here I cannot do anything, but if I meet you [back in Libya] I will kill you, if you don’t kill me.”
* * *
Omar Deghayes has committed no crime against this country (or the United States for that matter). However, if the Home Secretary would like to charge him with something, he should do so. We have no fear of a fair trial at which he will be acquitted. Omar was, and remains, a refugee who had the right to remain in Britain. His well- founded fear of persecution has only got more profound since he was abducted by the United States in Pakistan. Allowing him to be rendered back to Libya would clearly violate the Refugee Convention.
I have little doubt that Omar Deghayes would speedily be returned to Britain if the government were to ask, and make it clear that he is welcome.
Almost a month ago, I made the following requests, and I repeat them now with increased urgency:
One, I would be grateful if you could make time for a meeting with me and Mr. Deghayes’ mother about his situation.
Two, I would be grateful if you could formally guarantee to me that Mr. Deghayes is welcome to return to this country to his family, and make this known to the Americans.
Three, please confirm that you have sought assurances from the U.S. government that Mr. Deghayes will not be rendered to Libya, an act that would violate the Refugee Convention.
Four, I would like to discuss the steps that our government will take to ensure his expeditious return to this country. This should include filing a brief in support of our habeas petition, seeking either his release or a fair trial.
I understand that you are very busy, and I do not expect an instant reply to my letters. However, we live in a democracy, where our elected officials should be responsive to the requests of our citizens. I am British. More importantly, Omar Deghayes’ family are British. Omar may as well be British, he faces persecution and death, and there is no proof that he has ever done anything wrong. The Americans have refused to give me assurances that he will not be rendered to Libya, and it could happen any day. Because I have received no response whatsoever to my last urgent letter to you, sent 27 days ago, I shall release this letter to the media, and we willl be holding a press conference on Thursday, February 17, at 10 a.m. Since Omar Deghayes had begun his training as a solicitor in this country, I am glad to say that this press conference is sponsored by the Law Society.
I am delivering this letter 48 hours early because my object is not to embarrass the government. It is to get help for Omar Deghayes. I sincerely hope that the government will be prepared to make a commitment to human rights in response to what the President of the Law Society will say.
If I may, I would like to clarify two things: First, a meaningful response does not include the statement attributed to the Home Office on the Today programme on February 8, 2005 where it was implied that my clients had ‘waived’ their right to return to the U.K. because they had been absent for two years. I need hardly point out that Mr. Deghayes has been held in Guantanamo Bay against his will, and he would have returned long ago had he not been held illegally. Additionally, as a refugee, his position is quite different from any other permanent resident.
Second, a meaningful response does not include the statement that Britain has no right to send consular officials to Guantanamo Bay. This is a red herring. Whatever the legal arguments concerning consular access to a refugee, so long as I can visit my client whenever I want, I specifically do not want a British consular official to visit Mr. Deghayes. The last consular official to go there undermined the right of my other British clients, first by bringing American interrogators into the meetings, and then by making various misleading public statements about their condition – based no doubt on his lack of psychological training.
But there are many other ways, aside from consular intervention, in which Great Britain can wield her great influence in the world. Our government has intervened forcefully on behalf of many, many people who have little or no relationship with this country at all. For example, the government recently joined an admirable amicus brief on behalf of an American juvenile prisoner on death row. On a less positive note, on January 23, 2204, our government filed an amicus brief before the U.S. Supreme Court is Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, No. 03-339, in support of an appeal by a Mexican citizen who illegally kidnapped a doctor from Guadalajaara and took him to the U.S. At the very least, the government should be willing to file a brief on behalf of a British refugee who has, himself, been illegally kidnapped from Islamabad, Pakistan.
I remain,
Your sincerely,
Clive A. Stafford Smith, O.B.E.
Charles Clark, Home Secretary
The President, The Law Society
The Chairman, Bar Human Rights Committee
Gareth Peirce
Taher Deghayes
__________________________________________________ _____________________
¹ Churcher, New Torture Inquiry Plea over Guantanamo Briton, The Scotsman ()nov. 17, 2004).
