Bisher al-Rawi tells his story
Updated on 30 July 2007
Captured on a trip to the Gambia, rendered through Afghanistan and then held at Guantanamo Bay, Bisher al-Rawi was released in March after spending more than four years in captivity without charge.
Now, in this exclusive televised interview, he's told Channel 4 News how the MI5 officers that recruited him to work for the British Government later interrogated him, before breaking their earlier promises to help.
Mr al-Rawi also talks about his links to Abu Qatada - the man considered to be Al Qaeda's spiritual leader in Europe, and of his struggle for release.
Al-Rawi, an Iraqi national and a British resident, has lived in the UK since he was 16. But in early 2003 he found himself detained at Guantanamo Bay. He had been arrested in the Gambia where he says he was setting up a peanut oil business. His captors believed he was an Islamic extremist.
Mr al-Rawi first arrived in the UK over 20 years ago. He became a regular worshiper at Regents Park Mosque in London, and joined the close circle of students surrounding the Islamic cleric Abu Qatada.
He believes it was precisely because of his friendship with Abu Qatada that in the tense climate post-9/11 MI5 approached him and asked for his help.
Abu Qatada was arrested in October 2002 and a month later Bisher al-Rawi and some business associates set off for the Gambia. They were stopped at Gatwick, where Bisher was arrested for having tools and a battery charger on him.
The British police let them go and Mr al-Rawi says they assured him they would be safe to travel. But as soon as the group set foot in The Gambia they were detained. Channel 4 News has obtained a telegram, sent by MI5 to the US authorities clearly stating their attitude.
"... this is to confirm that in relation to the Islamists currently in detention in The Gambia, the UK would not seek to extend consular protection to non-British nationals."
The Intelligence and Security Committee said last week, that MI5 should have alerted the Government to the arrests. By the committee's own standards its criticism of MI5 is unprecedented.
He thinks the breakthrough came when he faced the military tribunal in Guantanamo. He called on MI5 to give evidence for him but the British wouldn't help.
Mr al-Rawi was released in March this year after his claims about his relationship with MI5 were made public and his lawyers took the Government to court. Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary at the time, made the representation to the US Government himself.
Mr al-Rawi is now back home in the UK and enjoying his freedom - but his thoughts are with his friend Jamil el-Banna, also a British resident with a wife and five children in this country, who is still incarcerated at Guantanamo and in danger of being sent to Jordan - unless this Government intervenes.
