An 81-year-old human rights lawyer has completed a week-long hunger strike to raise awareness about Guantanamo Bay detainee Shaker Aamer.

Margaret Owen, from Hammersmith, began her fast on Saturday, July 27, in protest at the continued detention of Battersea resident and father-of-four Mr Aamer.

Mrs Owen drank only water, milk, tea and coffee and did not even take vitamin supplements, leaving loved ones "desperately concerned" for her health.

The stoic pensioner continued her hunger strike to Saturday unharmed aside from a little weight loss.

Mr Aamer's supporters, including actress Julie Christie and comedian Frankie Boyle, have been involved in a hunger strike relay for more than a month.

Mrs Owen said: "My friends and relations told me I am wasting my time, that my hunger strike will have no effect and I will ruin my health.

"Well if Julie Christie, aged 72, has not eaten for a week, then I can do the same.

"Should my health have deteriorated, it would have been a small thing to risk compared to the life of Shaker, who is younger than my youngest son.

"I am a human rights lawyer, with my main focus on the rights of widows and wives of the disappeared in conflict and post conflict scenarios.

"But Shaker's wife has been a 'half-widow' for eleven long years, and she is in my thoughts and my prayers every day.

"While in that horrendous infernal Guantanamo, the shame of the US, Shaker, who has lost nearly half his original body-weight, is, according to his lawyer, Clive Stafford-Smith, now dying.

Mr Aamer, 46, has been in the Cuban detention centre, known as Gitmo, without charge or trial for the last 11 years since he was captured in Afghanistan in 2002.

Battersea MP Jane Ellison held a debate in Parliament in May which it was thought would be a springboard to discussion with the United States.

However, the general consensus is that it is now up to the UK Government to pressure their American counterparts into releasing Mr Aamer.

Learn more about Mrs Owen's work.

 

TODAY'S TOP WANDSWORTH STORIES