British Resident To Be Freed From Guantanamo Bay

A U.S. government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mohamed might be transferred as soon as Monday.

The United States has agreed to release Binyam Mohamed, a British resident held at the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay for the past five years without charge, Britain's Foreign Office said on Friday.

The decision follows a formal request by Britain to the United States in August 2007 asking for the remaining five British residents held at the camp on Cuba to be released.

Three have already been freed, and since President Barack Obama came to office, extra efforts have been made to secure the release of Mohamed, an Ethiopian citizen. A fifth detainee, Shaker Aamer, is considered a threat and will remain in custody.

"The UK and U.S. governments have reached agreement on the transfer of Mr Binyam Mohamed from Guantanamo Bay to the UK," the Foreign Office said in a statement. "He will be returned as soon as the practical arrangements can be made."

A U.S. government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mohamed might be transferred as soon as Monday. It would be the first transfer of a Guantanamo prisoner since Obama, who has pledged to close the camp, took office.

Mohamed, 30, was arrested in Pakistan in April 2002. He says he was tortured and abused by foreign agents while in custody there, and later flown to Morocco on a CIA plane, where he was again tortured, before being transferred to Guantanamo in 2004.

The U.S. has denied he was subjected to "extraordinary rendition", and Morocco has denied ever holding him.

He has been accused of training at al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and plotting to set off a radioactive bomb in the United States, but no charges have been brought against him.

Mohamed's case has received widespread coverage in Britain.

Earlier this month, Britain's High Court reluctantly ruled evidence of the torture he was subjected to should remain classified after the United States said releasing it could threaten intelligence cooperation between Washington and London.

IMMIGRATION STATUS

Mohamed's lawyers were pleased by news he is to be freed.

"Right now we're just happy, I'm just thrilled that he is coming back to the UK," said Yvonne Bradley, an American military officer who has acted as his lawyer at Guantanamo.

"His desire is to stay in the UK ... He is not the first resident to be returned home and I hope he gets treated in the same way," she told Sky News.

British officials have said that Mohamed will be a free man when he returns to Britain, but have also said that his immigration status will be reviewed.

"Mr Mohamed's return does not constitute a commitment by the home secretary (interior minister) that he may remain permanently in the UK," the Foreign Office said.

"The same security considerations will apply to him as would apply to any other foreign national in this country."

British diplomats and a doctor travelled to Guantanamo Bay last week to assess Mohamed's medical condition. He had been on a hunger strike for more than a month and his lawyers were concerned that he could die.

Mohamed was persuaded to end his hunger strike and assessed to be healthy enough to be flown back to Britain.