Shaker Aamer

55

Shaker Aamer : biography

12 December 1968 –

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. , CNN. 18 September 2006 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 9, 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.