Shaker Aamer Shaker Aamer ( born 12 December 1968 ) is a Saudi Arabian citizen and the last British resident held by the United States in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp s in Cuba . He was arrested in Jalalabad , Afghanistan , on 24 November 2001 and was rendered to Guantánamo on 14 February 2002 , where he has now been held for without trial or charge . According to documents published in the Guantanamo Bay files leak , the US military Joint Task Force Guantanamo believed in November 2007 that Aamer had led a unit of fighters in Afghanistan , including the Battle of Tora Bora , while his family was paid a stipend by Osama bin Laden . The file asserts past associations with Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui . Clive Stafford Smith , a human rights lawyer , said the leaked documents would not stand up in court . He claimed that part of the evidence comes from an unreliable witness and that confessions Aamer made had been obtained through torture . Aamer ’ s father - in - law , Saaed Ahmed Siddique , said : " All of these claims have no basis . If any of this was true he would be in a court now . " The Bush administration acknowledged later that it had no evidence against Aamer . Aamer has never been charged with any wrongdoing , has never received a trial , and his lawyer says he is " totally innocent . " He was cleared for release by the Bush administration in 2007 , and the Obama administration in 2009 but remains in Guantánamo . He has been described as a charismatic leader who spoke up and fought for the rights of fellow prisoners and some have speculated that this might be a reason for his continued detention . Aamer says that he has been subject to torture while in detention . Aamer ' s mental and physical health has been declining over the years , as he has participated in hunger strikes to protest detention condition and been held in solitary confinement much of the time . He has lost 40 per cent of his body weight in captivity . After a visit in November 2011 , Clive Stafford Smith said , " I do not think it is stretching matters to say that he is gradually dying in Guantanamo Bay . " The UK government has been demanding his release for years , and many people there have repeatedly called for his release . Family and personal life . Aamer was born on 12 December 1968 and grew up in Medina in Saudi Arabia . He left the country at the age of 17 . He lived and traveled in the United States , Europe and the Middle East . Aamer lived and studied in Georgia and Maryland in 1989 and 1990 and during the Persian Gulf War , he worked as a translator for the U . S . Army . He moved to the United Kingdom in 1996 where he met his wife , Zin Siddique a British woman . They married in 1997 and have four British children . Aamer has never met his youngest son Faris , who was born after his imprisonment . Aamer worked as an Arabic translator for London law firms . Some of the solicitors he worked for dealt with immigration cases . In his spare time , Aamer helped refugees find accommodation and offered them advice on their struggles with the Home Office . Aamer ' s family now live in Battersea , South London . His wife Zin Aamer has suffered from depression and mental episodes since his arrest . Saeed Siddique , Aamer ' s father - in - law , said in 2011 , " When he was captured , Shaker offered to let my daughter divorce him , but she said , ' No , I will wait for you . ' She is still waiting . " Capture and allegations . Aamer took his family to Afghanistan in 2001 where he was working for an Islamic charity . He was working for the charity when the U . S . invaded the country later that year . The Northern Alliance took him into custody in Jalalabad on 24 November 2001 , and passed him to the Americans . The US routinely paid ransom for Arabs handed over to them . They interrogated Aamer at Bagram Theater Internment Facility and transported him to Guantánamo on 14 February 2002 . According to documents published in the leak of Guantanamo Bay files , in November 2007 the US military Joint Task Force Guantanamo believed that Aamer was a " recruiter , financier , and facilitator " for al - Qaeda , based partly on evidence given by the informant Yasim Muhammed Basardah , a fellow detainee . The leaked documents alleged that Aamer had confessed to interrogators that he was in Tora Bora with Osama bin Laden at the time of the US bombing . Aamer denied the allegations . Clive Stafford Smith of Reprieve said the evidence against his client " would not stand up in court . " He pointed out that part of the evidence comes from Basardah , whom American judges found to be " utterly incredible " and who was tortured and " promised all sorts of things . " The Bush administration acknowledged later that it had no evidence against Aamer , and he was cleared for release in 2007 . The Obama administration cleared him for release in 2009 . Aamer ' s allegations about Bagram interrogations . In September 2009 Zachary Katznelson , a Reprieve lawyer , said that Aamer had told of suffering severe beatings at the Bagram facility . Aamer said that close to a dozen men had beaten him , including interrogators who represented themselves as officers of MI5 , the United Kingdom ' s internal counter - terrorism agency . Following one severe beating , he recovered from being stunned to find that all the interrogators had left the room and put a pistol on the table . He did not find out if the pistol was loaded . He said it occurred to him that it had been left either so he could kill himself , or that , if he picked it up , he could be shot and killed on the excuse he was trying to shoot them . Aamer says that the " MI5 " interrogators told him he had two choices : ( 1 ) agree to spy on suspected jihadists in the United Kingdom ; or ( 2 ) remain in US custody . He said that guards / agents repeatedly knocked his head against the wall while an MI5 officer was in the room . " All I know is that I felt someone grab my head and start beating my head into the back wall – so hard that my head was bouncing . And they were shouting that they would kill me or I would die . " Fifteen other British former detainees have alleged similar mistreatment by MI5 and MI6 agents , including torture . They filed suit against the British government over their mistreatment and torture . In November 2010 , the British government settled the suit , paying the detainees millions of pounds in compensation . Aamer is also on the compensation list and part of the deal , but details are not known as most of the deal is still secret . Guantanamo . Aamer has been described as an unofficial spokesman for the detainees at Guantanamo . He is charismatic and has spoken up for the welfare of prisoners , negotiating with camp commanders and organizing protests against cruel treatment . He organized and participated in a hunger strike in 2005 in which he lost half of his weight . He demanded the prisoners be treated according to the Geneva Convention , allowing the detainees to form a grievance committee . In negotiations , the camp administration promised a healthier diet for the prisoners after he agreed to end the hunger strike . His lawyer Stafford Smith said the grievance committee was formed , but that the camp authorities disbanded it after a few days . American spokesmen Major Jeffrey Weir denied that the Americans had ever agreed to any conditions resulting from the hunger strike . Since then Aamer has been taking part in further hunger strikes . He has been held in solitary confinement for most of the time . His lawyers describe his solitary confinement as " cruel " and said his health has been affected to a point were they fear for his life . Clive Stafford Smith said Aamer " is " falling apart at the seams . " On 18 September 2006 , Aamer ' s attorneys filed a 16 - page motion arguing for his removal from isolation in Guantanamo Bay prison . The motion alleges that Aamer had been held in solitary confinement for 360 days at the time of filing , and was tortured by beatings , exposure to temperature extremes , and sleep deprivation , which together caused him to suffer to the point of becoming mentally unbalanced . The next day Katznelson filed a motion to enforce the Geneva Conventions on his behalf . In September 2011 , Aamer ' s lawyer Brent Mickum , who saw him in Guantánamo , alleges that Aamer was repeatedly beaten before their meetings . He said that Aamer ' s mental and physical health is deteriorating . " It felt like he has given up : that ’ s what 10 years , mostly in solitary confinement will do to a person , " he said . Binyam Mohamed , one of the Britons who formerly occupied a cell one door down from Aamer , has said since his release that he knows why Aamer is still in the prison camps . " I would say the Americans are trying to keep him as silent as they could . It ' s not that he has anything . What happened in 2005 and 2006 is something that the Americans don ' t want the world to know – hunger strikes , and all the events that took place , until the three brothers who died . . . insider information of all the events , probably . Obviously , Shaker doesn ' t have it , but the Americans think he may have some of it , and they don ' t like this kind of information being released . " Clive Stafford Smith , his lawyer and director of human rights organisation Reprieve , comes to a similar conclusion . He said : " I have known Shaker for sometime , because he is so eloquent and outspoken about the injustices of Guantanamo he is very definitely viewed as a threat by the US . Not in the sense of being an extremist but in the sense of being someone who can rather eloquently criticise the nightmare that happened there . " Omar Deghayes , a former Guantanamo Detainee who knew Aamer , said of him , " He was always forward , he would translate for people , he ' d fight for them , and if he had any problems in the block he ' d shout at the guards . . . until he would get you your rights . And that ' s why he ' s still in prison . . . because he ' s very outspoken , a very intelligent person , somebody who would fight for somebody else ' s rights . " 2013 hunger strike and detention condition . In 2013 Aamer told his attorneys that he is among the growing group of active hunger strikers . He said he has been refusing meals since February 15 and has lost 32 pounds . In previous hunger strikes guards force - feed him with tubes down his nose . His lawyer said Aamer spends 22 hours a day alone in his cell . Aamer is not permitted visitors except his attorneys . At Camp " No " on June 2006 . Aamer said that he was beaten for hours and subjected to interrogation methods that included asphyxiation on 9 June 2006 , the same day that three fellow prisoners died in Guantanamo . Describing the event , Aamer said that he was strapped to a chair , fully restrained at the head , arms and legs . When MPs pressed on pressure points all over his body : his temples , just under his jawline , in the hollow beneath his ears . They bent his nose repeatedly , pinched his thighs and feet . They inflicted pain to his eyes , bent his fingers until he screamed and then they cut off his airway and put a mask over him , so he could not cry out . The law professor Scott Horton published an award - winning article in " Harper ' s Magazine " in 2010 . He said that Aamer had been brought to " Camp No , " a secret interrogation black site outside the camp , with the three men who died on the day of the event . Horton described Aamer ' s account of having his airways cut off as " alarming " and wrote , " This is the same technique that appears to have been used on the three deceased prisoners . " Colonel Michael Bumgarner , the commander of the camps during the incident and identified in Horton ' s article as having been present during the interrogations , denied Horton ' s claims . Horton wrote that Aamer ' s repatriation was being delayed so that he could not testify about his alleged torture in Bagram or the events on 9 June 2006 . He wrote : " American authorities may be concerned that Aamer , if released , could provide evidence against them in criminal investigations . " UK release negotiations . The United Kingdom government initially refused to intervene on the behalf of Guantánamo detainees who are legal British residents without being British . In August 2007 , Foreign Secretary David Miliband requested the release of Aamer and four other men , based on their having been granted refugee status , or similar leave , to remain in Britain as residents prior to their capture by US forces . With the repatriation of Binyam Mohammed in February 2009 , all British citizens and residents other than Aamer have been released . The UK government officials have repeatedly raised Aamer ' s case with the Americans . On a visit to the United States on 13 March 2009 , when asked about Guantánamo captives , Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said that the U . S . administration has said they do not want to return Aamer to the U . K . William Hague , the Foreign Secretary , raised Aamer ' s case again with Hillary Clinton , US Secretary of State , in November 2010 , followed by meetings with other United States officials . At the time , the US government had reached settlement with former detainees as a resolution for damages due to the use of torture in interrogation . In September 2011 , Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said that the negotiations are ongoing and confidential . Supporters of Aamer have criticized the UK government for not doing enough on his behalf ; they urged the government to step up their efforts . In January 2012 , " The Independent " revealed that the British government has spent £274 , 345 fighting in court to prevent Aamer ' s lawyers from gaining access to evidence which may prove his innocence . The newspaper reported that Aamer has several serious medical complaints from years of " inhumane " detention conditions , and that the UK gave false hope to his family . References . < div class = " references - small " >