Euro-MP welcomes request for al-Rawi release.

1.04.47pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 25th Apr 2006

London's Liberal Democrat Euro-MP Baroness Sarah Ludford has welcomed the British government's formal request to US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice for the release of her constituent Bisher al-Rawi from Guantanamo Bay.

Sarah, who is vice-chair of the European Parliament's temporary committee investigating CIA 'torture flights' and jails in Europe, said:

"While I am relieved for Mr al-Rawi and his family that there is finally a real prospect of his release, it is disgraceful that this action by the government comes not as a result of Tony Blair's moral awakening but because High Court moves revealed MI5's role in Bisher's rendition."

"Blair only recently changed his infamous view that Guantanamo Bay is 'just an anomaly' to thinking 'it would be better if it were closed'. But even by his standards, the shopping of a refugee from Saddam to this legal black hole is one of the most tawdry acts imaginable."

But there are 8 other British residents, including 2 other of Baroness Ludford's constituents Jamil al-Banna and Omar Deghayes, who still rot in Guantanamo Bay. She has previously recalled that human rights watchdog the Council of Europe last year demanded that European governments do all they can to ensure 'the release of any of their citizens, nationals or former residents' currently detained at Guantanamo Bay. She added:

"Blair is proud of his scorn for civil liberties and undermines the rule of law, though he is fond of calling for 'freedom'. So in the real interests of transatlantic friendship, let him recall Churchill's magnificent rallying call that Magna Carta and habeas corpus were the 'title deeds of freedom' and 'the message of the British and American people to mankind', ending: 'let us practice what we preach, let us practice what we preach'."