Cage (organisation)

Cage offers support to those denied due process regarding terrorism offences through casework, advocacy and research. The organisation also documents miscarriages of justice. Cage helps Muslims who have been subjected to torture, harassment and other abuses, by informing them of their rights and putting them in touch with lawyers. Cage has also campaigned for the release of hostages held by the Islamic State. Cage's outreach director, Moazzam Begg, is a Briton from Birmingham who was held for three years by the United States government in extrajudicial detention as a suspected enemy combatant at Bagram in Afghanistan, and the Guantánamo Bay detainment camp in Cuba. He was released without charge in 2005. He has worked to represent detainees still held at Guantánamo, as well as to help former detainees re-integrate into society. He has also been working with governments to persuade them to accept non-national former detainees, some of whom have been refused entry by their countries of origin. Begg has played a crucial role in proving UK complicity in US imprisonment and torture in Bagram and elsewhere, and aided detainees seeking admission and compensation from the UK government. ==Charitable funding==

Between 2007 and 2014, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust gave grants to Cage totalling £271,250. In a similar period, the Roddick Foundation, founded by Anita Roddick, gave grants totalling £120,000. In 2015, following pressure from the UK government's Charity Commission, both entities agreed to cease funding Cage. The Charity Commission had said that "Given the nature of [Cage’s] work, and the controversy it has attracted, the Charity Commission has been concerned that such funding risked damaging public trust and confidence in charity". The Rowntree Trust said the Charity Commission had applied "acute regulatory pressure" and had threatened to institute an exhaustive investigation into the Trust if it refused to stop funding CAGE. In October 2015, following an application for judicial review by Cage, the Charity Commission changed its position and said it would not in future interfere in the discretion of charities to choose to fund Cage. The judicial review heard evidence that Theresa Villiers, a British Cabinet Minister, and US intelligence had both applied pressure on the charity commission to investigate Cage, with US intelligence agents describing Cage as a "jihadist front". ==History==

Cage's website was launched in October 2003. It was among the leading organisations which worked on publicising the names of the detainees at Guantanamo. it published names, photos and other information about detainees obtained from detainees' families. The U.S. government's refusal impeded the efforts of lawyers who had wished to represent the detainees there. Cage was formerly Cageprisoners Ltd, and is sometimes styled as "CAGE". After Anwar al-Awlaki's release from Yemeni detention in 2007, Cage invited the cleric to address their Ramadan fundraising dinners in August 2008 (at Wandsworth Civic Centre, South London, by videolink, as he was banned from entering the UK) and August 2009 at Kensington Town Hall. As of 2025, it was generally known as CAGE International and it operated in over twenty countries. == Controversies ==

Partnership with Amnesty In 2010 Gita Sahgal, leader of Amnesty’s Gender Unit, spoke against the organization's partnership with CAGE and Moazzam Begg. Her criticism was about issues concerning women’s rights and discrimination against minorities. Sahgal reasoned this as Begg himself and other individuals linked to the organization, were convicted on terror charges. Anwar al-Awlaki CAGE received heavy criticism for its ties with Anwar al-Awlaki, who was a leading figure within al-Qaeda. In 2008, he addressed a fundraising event in London by video, but was banned in 2009 as authorities revealed his support of violent Jihad. Some organizations claimed that CAGE's purpose in inviting him and exposing him in a positive manner was done to legitimize an extremist leader. According to them, this was the method in which under the claim of human rights, CAGE promoted and protected extremists. This increased controversy, as many politicians and journalists attacked CAGE for this, saying the group was blaming the state instead of Emwazi and was too soft on a known terrorist. This raised doubts about whether CAGE was a real human rights group or was defending extremists. This event damaged the organization's relationship with Amnesty. ==Reception==

Cage campaigns against torture, imprisonment without trial, "draconian" anti-terror laws and similar issues. Human rights groups have also said that Cage is doing vital work. Cage has spoken out against the UK's anti-terrorism laws. Allegations of security service harassment Following the murder of Lee Rigby by Michael Adebolajo in May 2013, Cage reported that Adebolajo had suffered harassment from security services before the offence. A report by the Intelligence and Security Committee of the British parliament later confirmed that the British government may have been complicit in his treatment. In February 2015, Mohamed Emwazi, a 27-year-old Briton, was identified as the probable masked beheader of civilian captives of ISIS in Syria. Emwazi had, between 2009 and January 2012, been in contact with Cage while in the UK, complaining that he was being harassed by British intelligence agencies. At a press conference the following day, Cage's research director, Asim Qureshi, said Emwazi had been "a beautiful young man" and "extremely kind, gentle and soft-spoken". In Qureshi's view, Emwazi's contact with the UK security services had contributed to his transformation into a killer. "Individuals are prevented from travelling, placed under house arrest and in the worst cases tortured, rendered or killed, seemingly on the whim of security agents." - Cage Prime Minister David Cameron and Mayor of London Boris Johnson both decried the suggestion that Emwazi's radicalisation was the fault of British authorities. According to the BBC, "Human rights groups say they [Cage] are doing 'vital work' but critics have called the organisation 'apologists for terror'." The Labour Member of Parliament (MP) John Spellar encouraged charities which funded Cage to rethink in light of their recent comments. but changed their position on this in October 2015. Following Emwazi's death in a drone strike in November 2015 in the Syrian Civil War, Cage was among those who expressed dissatisfaction that he had not been brought to trial. Muhammad Rabbani conviction On 25 September 2017, Muhammad Rabbani, the international director of Cage, was found guilty at Westminster Magistrates Court of having wilfully obstructed police at Heathrow Airport by refusing to divulge the passwords to his mobile phone and laptop computer. Rabbani was given a conditional discharge for 12 months and ordered to pay £620 costs. Rabbani had been stopped whilst returning from Qatar, where Rabbani said he had interviewed a man to collect evidence for UK lawyers of that man's claims of having been tortured while in US custody. On two previous occasions Rabbani had refused to hand over passwords at ports and airports and had been allowed to pass. Rabbani and Cage described the conviction as a "moral victory" against Schedule 7. The ordeal of Rabbani's arrest and trial is documented in the film Phantom Parrot. Libel case against The Times In December 2020, Cage and Moazzam Begg received damages of £30,000 plus costs in a libel case they had brought against The Times newspaper. In June 2020, a report in The Times had suggested that Cage and Begg were supporting a man who had been arrested in relation to a knife attack in Reading in which three men were murdered. The Times report also suggested that Cage and Begg were excusing the actions of the accused man by mentioning mistakes made by the police and others. In addition to paying damages, The Times printed an apology. Cage stated that the damages amount would be used to "expose state-sponsored Islamophobia and those complicit with it in the press... The Murdoch press empire has actively supported xenophobic elements and undermined principles of open society and accountability... We will continue to shine a light on war criminals and torture apologists and press barons who fan the flames of hate". ==See also==