Guantanamo detainee phones wife in Britain

Published on 03/11/2006 12:13

A DETAINEE at Guantanamo Bay has had a tearful phone conversation with his wife in London - a rare occurrence at the isolated prison camp where hundreds have been held for years without speaking to their families.

Jamil el-Banna, a 38-year-old Jordanian with British residency, spoke to his wife Sabah for an hour last month. She went to the US Embassy in London to take the call. "When I heard his voice I started crying. He cried too," she said. "He told me that when the prison guards led him away from his camp, he thought he was going to be interrogated again. He didn't even know he was going to speak to me, so hearing my voice was a complete shock to him."

Mr el-Banna's lawyer, Brent Mickum, said the military allowed his client to make the long-distance phone call on humanitarian grounds because his mother had recently died. Mr El-Banna, who was arrested in Gambia in November 2002, has been held at Guantanamo since March 2003 on suspicion of associating with al-Qaida. Mr Mickum maintains his client is innocent. Over 400 detainees are held at Guantanamo, most suspected of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban.