Downing Street Says » Binyam Mohamed

Asked how much it had cost to fly Binyam Mohamed back from Guantanamo Bay in a private jet, the Prime Minister s Spokesman (PMS) replied that he did not have that information. Asked what the current status of his application was, the PMS said that he would be subject to the same immigration considerations as any other foreign national in the UK. We wouldn t normally comment on individual cases, but public safety was our top priority as the Prime Minister was making clear earlier.

Asked whether Mr Mohamed had asked for indefinite leave or asylum, the PMS repeated that he would be subject to the same immigration considerations as any other foreign national and we would not start commenting on individual immigration cases. Put that by putting those two statements together, it implied that there was some security risk, the PMS said he was making a general statement about what our general position was in order to provide some context for not commenting on the individual case.

Asked if the Government wanted Mr Mohamed to be in the UK, the PMS said that he would not comment on individual cases. Where people had a legal right to be in the UK, it was a situation we were faced with. That applied to many people and our overriding priority was public safety.

Asked why Mr Mohamed could not have gone to Ethiopia, the PMS replied that we had been round this course many times, over many years. We wanted to see Guantanamo Bay closed, as did many people. As part of that over a number of years, we had negotiated for the return of a number of British nationals and people who had the right to be resident in the UK in order to facilitate the closure of Guantanamo Bay.

Put that Mr Mohamed was neither a British national or had the legal right to be in the UK, the PMS said that he did not want to get into a discussion about an individual case; this was something that had been negotiated and considered over many years as people knew. It had been a longstanding position dating back some time that we would negotiate his release with the US authorities, in order to facilitate the closure of Guantanamo Bay and that s what we were going to do.

Asked to confirm whether it was true that three other British nationals had a right to come to Britain, the PMS said that we had already taken back 13 detainees, nine nationals and four residents which didn t include Binyam Mohamed. We had also asked for the release of Shaker Aamer, who was also a UK resident.

Asked if there would be an inquiry into whether the British secret services were involved in the alleged mistreatment of Binyam Mohamed, the PMS said that the position on that was set out very comprehensively by the Foreign Secretary a couple of weeks ago. Put that that had been challenged, the PMS said that that remained the position.

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» Monday, February 23, 2009

Binyam Mohamed

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