Former detainee presses for closure of Guantanamo

A FORMER Guantanamo detainee is to press justice and foreign officials about EU countries accepting more former prisoners and the efforts being made to close the controversial detention camp.

Moazzam Begg, who spent two of his three years in solitary confinement at the US jail in Cuba, will call on the Government to lead the way on the issue of countries taking in released detainees from Guantanamo.

Ahead of the meeting today, the 42-year-old British citizen said: “Guantanamo is a brutal place where I witnessed at first hand the torture and degrading treatment inflicted on detainees. Ireland has already made a contribution to ending this by accepting two former detainees and this needs to be acknowledged.”