Free my brother
7:58am Sunday 21st January 2007 in News By Clara Story
Wahab al-Rawi: "I never thought for one moment this would happen.".
In 2002, Wahab al-Rawi saw a business opportunity in the Gambian peanut trade. He hoped to make a fortune for himself and the African farmers by processing peanuts on farms and selling the oil nearby. But little did he know the venture would lose him £250,000 and, more importantly, his brother Bisher's freedom.
On Thursday last week, Wahab, 41, was in London to demonstrate against the prison at Guantanamo Bay on its fifth anniversary. His brother Bisher has been held at the US airbase since his arrest in The Gambia in November 2002 as he arrived to help Wahab set up his factory.
Both brothers and Wahab's business partner, Jamil el-Banna, were seized and questioned by the CIA for 27 days, before Wahab - a British citizen - was released and the others flown to an airbase in Afghanistan. They were then taken to Guantanamo Bay, where they have been ever since without trial.
"I never thought for one moment this would happen," said Wahab, a polite, gently-spoken man who bears a strong resemblance to his brother. "I was a successful businessman, from a good family. Then suddenly I'm a captive of the CIA being interrogated. I could not believe what happened."
Last Monday Kingston and Surbiton MP Edward Davey made a plea in the House of Commons for Bisher's release, and on Wednesday and Thursday there were vigils at Downing Street and the US Embassy.
The Government promised last March to press for Bisher's release, after the threat of court action which would have examined Bisher's work for MI5. Bisher claimed two years ago that he had been helping the British intelligence agency to keep an eye on Muslim cleric Abu Qatada.
Since then there has been no sign of progress. Lawyers for Bisher say his mental health is deteriorating after being in solitary confinement for the past year - because he has stopped answering the same old questions. Zachary Katznelson from the pressure group Reprieve said conditions were "worse than any death row I have ever seen".
Wahab said: "In his last letters he doesn't seem to make any sense: it is like he has lost it. It is sad to see the change from his first letters where he reassured us."
The al-Rawis lived a privileged life in London after settling in New Malden in 1985. They were wealthy Iraqis fleeing Saddam's regime, where Bisher's father was imprisoned and interrogated.
When the rest of the family took British citizenship, Bisher kept his Iraqi status in case they could one day reclaim their assets. "This is my adopted country, so I am doubly hurt," said Wahab. "We could have gone anywhere, we had enough money. If we had known this would happen we would have gone to Sweden."
Bisher, a student at Millfield public school and University College London, was no religious recluse. "He was an adrenaline junkie," said Wahab. "He did 67 parachute jumps and had his private pilot's licence, kept motorbikes, and had his full deep-sea diving qualification."
But the al-Rawis were also friends with radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada. Qatada officiated at the marriage of Bisher's sister, and Bisher started acting as a "handyman" for him, said Wahab, giving him lifts as the cleric could not drive.
"If you needed anything done, your car fixing or anything like that, you would call Bisher. He was that kind of practical guy," said Wahab.
It is at this point that Bisher allegedly began working with MI5 to watch Qatada. Wahab, although not a religious man, was also friends with the Jordanian cleric - who he said used to visit him when feeling lonely in the UK.
"Abu Qatada was not a complicated man - he had his leg pulled at mosque by people asking questions until he answered them and said something controversial, then they would say "you've said this". I told him to stop saying such things that he did not understand," said Wahab.
He refuses to believe that Qatada - who has been held without charge in the UK for several years - was part of a terrorist group. "He could not organise a dinner party," he said.
Whatever the guilt of Qatada, Bisher was MI5's point of contact. When Wahab roped Bisher into helping with his Gambian factory, MI5 allegedly sent cables to the CIA asking for Bisher to be arrested as he arrived in Africa - cables available on website cagedprisoners.com. They spoke of a suspicious device which Bisher had been questioned about at Gatwick, which turned out to be a battery charger.
"I think they wanted him to implicate Abu Qatada - MI5 wanted to deliver the goods. But Bisher could not tell them anything, because there was nothing to tell. He was principled, too much so at times," said Wahab.
Wahab said during interrogation they were shackled and hooded when moved, and that guards had beaten Jamil viciously for not co-operating.
When Wahab asked about his £250,000 processing equipment, the men denied its existence. He has now had to remortgage his house to recover from the financial blow. After he was released and sent back to England, Wahab did not hear anything for months until letters began arriving from Guantanamo.
He has now moved away from the family to Leeds and is not on good terms with his mother. "I just cannot look at the old places and have the old memories. I feel like people are looking at me and thinking it is my fault," he said.
For Bisher, Jamil and the six other British residents in Guantanamo, the wait goes on. At the vigil outside Downing Street, Kingston MP Edward Davey called on Tony Blair to demand the closure of the prison, saying the right to justice was being "swept aside and trampled on".
Wahab agreed. "There are probably dangerous people in Guantanamo - the world is full of mad and dangerous people and we should be protected from them," he said. "But Bisher is not one of them. He deserves justice."
