LONDON, April 21 (UPI) -- A British man recently released from Guantanamo Bay is campaigning for the release of five British residents still detained at the U.S. base in Cuba.
Moazzam Begg, who spent four years in Guantanamo after being seized by the CIA in Afghanistan, told the BBC it was a duty of the British government to repatriate the men.
"Although these people are not British citizens, their families certainly are, their children are," he said.
He said that since Britain had allowed some of the five to stay in the country or had granted some status as political refugees he believed there was "some onus on them, some duty to work for their repatriation and their rights."
Begg said he had met two of the men during his detention, including Bisher al-Rawi, who had facial marks and showed the "remnants of a beating."
Begg was released in January along with another three men and has claimed torture by American interrogators. He admits he visited two militant training camps in Afghanistan but says he was there as an observer.
