Chris Law MP (SNP), Co-Chair of the APPG, at the Guantanamo vigil in June
MPs and Peers met in Parliament on Monday, 26 June 2023 to new All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Closing of the Guantánamo Detention Facility.
Appearing at the APPG was former detainee Mohamedou Ould Salahi, author of The Guantanamo Diaries, which was the basis of the film The Mauritanian and Mozzam Begg, a British former detainee who is now Outreach Director for the group CAGE. Also addressing the APPG was Clive Adrian Stafford Smith OBE, a British/American lawyer who has represented over a dozen detainees in court and is the founder of Reprieve, an NGO of lawyers assisting victims of human rights abuses.
The Group also heard from Yusef Mingazov, the son of Ravil Mingazov, who was held in Guantanamo for 14 years before being released to the UAE where he was re-imprisoned and is now held without access to lawyers.
The meeting coincided with the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. And torture is what has kept these men in limbo for so long. Having subjected them to beatings, sleep deprivation, water boarding and extreme temperature, the Americans remain unwilling to appear before a real court of law.