Anti-Guantanamo Geraint welcomes Obama camp closure at Swansea meeting

On Friday at the Guildhall Swansea Geraint Davies, who was the MP who led the successful parliamentary campaign to release the British detainees from Guantanamo Bay, will address a Labour audience and warmly greet President Obama’s announcement’s that the kangaroo court military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay won’t proceed and the camp will close for good.

As an MP Geraint Davies got record signed support from 260 MPs for an all-party Commons Motion which called for the repatriation of British detainees to face a fair trial or release in Britain.

The now Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Swansea West and successor to Alan Williams MP also led the campaign to close Guantanamo Bay and was particularly thanked for his success in returning Feroz Abbasi by his mother Juma Abbasi and for the return of Moazzam Begg by his father Azmat Begg.

Talking to a Swansea West Labour Party meeting in Swansea on Friday Geraint Davies will say
”A fair trial and equality before the law is a basic right and protection in democratic societies. To make a fair trial conditional on circumstances is to give the pretext for dictatorships around the world, from China to Zimbabwe, to suppress human rights and justice.”

 “Barack Obama realises that if the United States is again to become the standard bearer of freedom, democracy and justice in the world then it must not weaken its standards in the face of external threats but stand as a beacon of justice in an unjust world.

“It is important to stop the kangaroo courts and to close Guantanamo Bay, not just to win the battle for hearts and minds but to uphold fundamental principles of justice, freedom and human rights.

“I am proud that I have played my part in parliament at the forefront of the campaign for change and overjoyed that with the election of Barack Obama change has come and justice has broken through the gates of Guantanamo Bay.”

“Let us not forget that detainees were kept for years in 2 metre cube cages with half an hour’s exercise twice a week, were regularly beaten and tortured and expected to face a tribunal that did not require proper evidence. They were denied their own lawyer and faced a likely death penalty based on prejudice and testimony from torture instead of justice and a verdict based on evidence. President Obama heralds a new era of hope and justice at a time when the world most needs it.”

nb Feroz Abbasi was apprehended in Afghanistan after the war in Iraq. Geraint Davies took up his case as his constituency MP and took leadership of the Parliamentary Campaign appearing on US, Canadian and European media.