Top Rabbi Backs Sarah's Guantanamo Campaign

8.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 23rd May 2007

Sarah has visited Washington to lobby George Bush's government for her constituent

A top Rabbi has backed local MP Sarah Teather in her campaign to close Guantánamo Bay and have Brent resident Jamil el-Banna returned home.

In a written article, Rabbi Danny Rich, Chief Executive of Liberal Judaism, said: "Torture and indefinite detention violate fundamental Jewish values… According to both Jewish law and the operating principles of modern democracies persons are considered innocent until proven guilty, and their fate should be a concern of all persons with a religious conscience or those who value democratic freedoms."

Rabbi Rich went on to say: "As a Rabbi, as a Jew and as a citizen who delights in the democratic freedoms of British society… I cannot but support the call by Sarah Teather for the release of Jamil el Banna and his return to his wife and family in England."

Jamil el-Banna has now been held in Guantánamo Bay without trial or charge for over four years. In that time he has been allowed contact with his wife only once. Jamil has never met his youngest daughter.

In March Jamil's friend, Bisher al-Rawi, was released from Guantánamo after the British Government finally made representations to the United States. Jamil was detained and sent to Guantánamo on the basis of the same faulty evidence as Bisher al-Rawi, yet the Government have refused to intervene on his behalf.

Local Liberal Democrat MP for Brent East Sarah Teather said:

"Rabbi Rich's comments show how the campaign to have Jamil el-Banna released is winning backing from across the whole community.

"Jamil's ongoing imprisonment is repulsive to all those who value the international rule of law and the right of an individual to a free and fair trial. Jamil el-Banna has five British children and a wife here in Brent who desperately need him. He should be either charged with a crime, or released.

"It is important that many more people come forward to condemn the illegal and dangerous practices at Guantánamo. I hope Rabbi Rich's comments act as a wake up call to the Government that they cannot go on ignoring my constituent."

"Gordon Brown should promise that, when he becomes Prime Minister, he will stand up to George Bush and ask to have Jamil el-Banna returned home."