Guantanamo nightmare 'over'

Bisher al-Rawi, an Iraqi national who had been held at the US base since 2002, said he was "delighted" to be back home and paid tribute to all those who campaigned for his release.

But he said he felt great sorrow leaving the other British residents who were prisoners at Guantanamo, describing the "hopelessness" and "extreme isolation" suffered by inmates at the jail.

Last week Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett announced the British Government had agreed with US authorities that Mr al-Rawi could be returned to the UK.

He is now back in England and, in a statement released on Sunday, asked to be allowed time with his family to come to terms with the "horrific experience" he had gone through.

In the statement issued through his US lawyers, Reprieve, Mr al-Rawi said: "I am delighted to be back in England, with my family. After four years in Guantanamo Bay, my nightmare is finally at an end. As happy as I am to be home though, leaving my best friend Jamil el-Banna behind in Guantanamo Bay makes my freedom bittersweet.

"Jamil was arrested with me in the Gambia on exactly the same unfounded allegations, yet he is still a prisoner. "He is the father of five young children, the eldest of whom is ten. He has never seen his youngest daughter who is nearly five years old. He too should be released and reunited with his family," Mr al-Rawi said.

Mr al-Rawi, from New Malden, had reportedly lived in Britain with his family for 16 years before he was arrested along with his friend Jamil el-Banna during a business trip to Gambia in November 2002. He finally returned home to his mother, brother and sister this weekend.

He says he felt great sorrow for the other nine British residents who remained prisoners in Guantanamo in Cuba. He added: "The hopelessness you feel in Guantanamo can hardly be described. You are asked the same questions hundreds of times.

"Allegations are made against you that are laughably untrue, but you have no chance to prove them wrong. There is no trial, no fair legal process. I was alleged to have participated in terrorist training in Bosnia and Afghanistan. I've never been to Bosnia and the only time I visited Afghanistan was thanks to the hospitality of the CIA in an underground prison, the Dark Prison outside Kabul."