Jamil el-Banna

Jamil el-Banna was born in Jericho, West Bank in 1962. Soon after his birth, his family moved into Jordan, where they were housed at a refugee camp near Amman. Jamil dropped out of school at age 10, and fell into petty crime. ==Legal resident in United Kingdom==

In 1994, he made his way to the United Kingdom, where he successfully applied for refugee status. He lived in north-west London. Later, he worked for a friend's brother, who was setting up an edible oil (peanut) factory in the Gambia. ==Jamil el-Banna's detention in The Gambia==

Jamil, and Bisher al-Rawi flew to the Gambia to meet a shipment of machine parts to be used to set up an edible oil factory, which was owned by Bisher's brother. The two men, along with two others, were taken into custody by the National Intelligence Agency on their arrival at Banjul International Airport in the Gambia on 8 November 2002, purportedly on suspicion of alleged links to al-Qaeda, and advice from British security authorities. At first, the two men were under a kind of unofficial house arrest. They were not formally charged with any crimes under Gambian law. They were told that they would be released when their machinery had been checked to make sure it was not something that could be used for terrorism. They were not detained in a Gambian jail, but rather in a CIA 'snatch team' safe house, which was provided by American security officials. They were guarded by Gambians and interrogated by American agents. In late December 2002, the CIA decided to transport them from the Gambia. Once in the main area of the airbase prison, he met Moazzam Begg, a British citizen whose bookshop he had visited in England. Nicknamed 'Kenny Rogers', el-Banna once entertained American guards by singing half a verse of Coward of the County. ==Allegations of torture==

The Guardian reported that Clive Stafford Smith, Jamil el-Banna's lawyer, said his client had participated in both the hunger strike that ended when the camp authorities made promises on 28 July 2005, and a second that started on 8 August. They were protesting the detention without charges, and abuses and mistreatment. Stafford Smith said that Jamil told him that one of the reasons for the second hunger strike was that guards were still searching through the prisoner's copies of the Qur'an by hand. A December 2005 article in The Times repeated Jamil's claim that his American interrogators told him that MI5 had colluded in his extraordinary rendition.{{Cite web|url=http://www.TimesOnline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-523-1938203-523,00.html The lawyers of Guantanamo Bay detainees have to hand in all their notes to the authorities, which consider them 'classified'. The lawyers may only examine their own notes in a single secure location near Washington, DC. The Times reported material from Stafford Smith's notes on conversations with his client, which were recently declassified: In Cuba, one interrogator is alleged to have told el-Banna: "Why are you angry at America? It is your government, Britain, the MI5, who called the CIA and told them you and Bisher were in Gambia and to come and get you. Britain gave everything to us. Britain sold you out to the CIA." Jamil el-Banna said that he was offered $10 million, and a US passport by US agents, if he would testify against Abu Qatada. According to The Times, he said: When he refused, an interrogator told him: "I am going to London . . . I am going to fuck your wife. Your wife is going to be my bitch. Maybe you'll never see your children again." ==Contact with his family==

El-Banna is married to Sabah el-Banna, born 8 December 1964, who are Anas, born 17 December 1996, Mohamed, born 22 December 1997, Abdulrahman, born 10 May 1999, Badeah, born 11 February 2001, and Mariam, born 13 April 2003. His youngest daughter was born after his abduction by the Gambians. A 1 November 2006 article in the Willesden & Brent Times reported that el-Banna was allowed his first phone call to his wife on 19 October 2006, after four years' detention.{{Cite web|publisher=Willesden & Brent Times According to el-Banna' wife: ==Bisher al-Rawi's release==

On 29 March 2007, UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, MP announced that the UK Government had negotiated the return from Guantanamo of el-Banna's traveling companion, Bisher al-Rawi, also a legal British resident. All the British nationals imprisoned at Guantanamo were freed before September 2004. ==Release==

On 7 August 2007, the United Kingdom government requested the release of Jamil el-Banna and four other foreign nationals who had been legal British residents. The UK government warned its public that the negotiations might take months. Jamil el-Banna was released from Guantanamo Bay on 18 November 2007, and flown back to Britain. On his return, he was detained under port and border controls and questioned. On 19 November, he was arrested under a Spanish extradition warrant for allegedly having been connected to al-Qaeda in Madrid. On 20 December, he was released on bail of £50,000, part of which was put up by actress Vanessa Redgrave; conditions of his bail include observing a curfew and wearing an electronic tag. On his return, Omar Deghayes was also arrested and questioned, before appearing in court on a Spanish extradition warrant. ==Torture claims investigation==

On 29 April 2009, Spanish investigating magistrate Baltazar Garzon initiated a formal investigation into whether confessions from Ikassrien, and three other former Guantanamo captives were the result of the use of abusive interrogation techniques.{{Cite news|author=Giles Tremblett|date=29 April 2009|url=https://www.TheGuardian.com/world/2009/apr/29/spain-court-guantanamo-detainees-torture ==See also==