MP Tom Brake on the campaign to free wrongly-imprisoned terror suspect (From Your Local Guardian)

MP Tom Brake on his campaign to free wrongly-imprisoned Carshalton terror suspect

3:30pm Thursday 4th February 2010 in Sutton Exclusive By Julia Kennard

MP for Carshalton and Wallington Tom Brake campaigned alongside the Sutton Guardian for the last 15 months to release Mr Al Sarraj.

He said Mr Al Sarraj’s human rights had been “battered and bruised from start to end”.

Mr Brake said: “If the Americans had a case against him, they should have dealt with it swiftly and efficiently.

“Instead, it dragged on for months and months, with no certainty about when or indeed whether he would be released, only for him to be released without charge about a year later.”

Mr Brake fought the case with the American authorities and highlighted it with the Foreign Office and Iraq authorities.

He said: “It has been a real battle. First we had to fight to have his case dealt with swiftly by the Americans.

“Then we had to fight to ensure that, after he had been found innocent of any charges by an Iraqi judge, he was released by the Americans.

“Finally we had to fight to get the right papers for him after his passport had been lost by the US authorities, to allow him to return to the UK with his wife.”