UK MPs want ex-Guantanamo inmate held in UAE reunited with family

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) – British lawmakers have called on the country's home secretary to initiate efforts for reuniting an ex-Guantanamo inmate held in the UAE with his family in the UK.

In a letter to Suella Braverman, seven MPs, including Chris Law and Layla Moran, co-chairs of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Closing the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility, requested "urgent contact" with the UAE authorities to make sure that Ravil Mingazov will not be repatriated to Russia.

Arrested in Pakistan in 2002, Mingazov, 55, spent 14 years in Guantanamo Bay without charge or trial. He has been detained in the UAE since his release from Guantanamo in 2017.

In a statement by the UK-based advocacy group CAGE on Tuesday, his son Yusuf Mingazov recalled conversations with his father and said: "... In those conversations (through Red Cross), he would try and teach me, almost as if to compensate for the things he missed in my childhood."

Anas Mustapha, head of Public Advocacy at CAGE, noted that his son appealed to the Home Office in 2015 to bring his father home, but the appeal was denied.

"Ravil Mingazov was tortured and held without charge or trial by the US. He was misled when the US failed to guarantee his freedom upon his transfer to the UAE where he has been imprisoned since," he added.

"We are requesting that you meet with us and urgently contact the UAE to ask that Mr. Mingazov not be repatriated to Russia and that you immediately consider granting his application to enter and remain in the UK, and be reunited with his son and family," said the letter that was issued last week.

Apsana Begum, John McDonnell, Peter Bottomley, Rachael Maskell, Caroline Lucas were other MPs who signed the letter.