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3 British residents freed from Guantanamo, returning to UK | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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LONDON (AP) – Three longtime British residents held at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been released and are due to land in Britain on Wednesday, officials said.

Jamil el-Banna, of Jordan, Libyan-born Omar Deghayes and Abdennour Sameur, of Algeria, were aboard a chartered aircraft accompanied by a doctor and London police counterterrorism officers, police said.

Officers on board the plane will either arrest or “port stop” the men once they land in Britain, London police said. A port stop allows police to detain suspects entering Britain for up to eight hours and to take fingerprints and DNA samples.

Two other British residents, Saudi-born Shaker Aamer and Ethiopian national Binyam Mohamed, will remain at Guantanamo after the United States refused to release them, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said last week.

Five British citizens were freed from Guantanamo in March 2004 and four in January 2005, according to Britain’s Foreign Office.