Moazzam Begg

Moazzam Begg (born 5 July 1968 in Sparkhill, Birmingham) is a British Pakistani who was held in extrajudicial detention by the US government in the Bagram Theater Internment Facility and the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, in Cuba, for nearly three years.

Moazzam Begg was born in Sparkhill in 1968, and grew up in Moseley, both suburbs of Birmingham.

His father, Azmat Begg, was born in British India and lived in Pakistan before emigrating with his wife to Great Britain.

Begg's mother died when he was six, and his father initially worked in Britain as a bank manager.

Begg holds dual UK–Pakistani citizenship.

Begg attended the Jewish King David School, Birmingham, from age 5 to 11, because his father thought it promoted good values.

Begg later attended Moseley Secondary School.

During secondary school, he became a member of the Lynx gang, a Birmingham street gang.

The group was mostly Pakistani, but also included Algerian, Asian, Afro-Caribbean and Irish youths.

The group was founded in the early 1970's to fight attacks by far right anti-immigrant groups.

He said "we did things that no good Muslim should," but stated he rarely did anything violent.

He once appeared in court for taking part in a fight with skinheads.

Begg attended Solihull College, and later the University of Wolverhampton, where he studied Law for two years, which he did not enjoy and did not complete his degree.

On a family holiday to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in his late teens, Begg became interested in Islam.

Begg acknowledged having spent time at two non-al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan in the early 1990s and given some financial support to fighters in Bosnia and Chechnya, but denies that he was ever involved in terrorism.

Begg says that he was abused by guards at Bagram, and saw two detainees beaten to death.

Military coroners ruled that the two deaths were homicides, but US military spokesmen denied Begg's story at the time.

Inspired by the commitment of the mujahedeen, Begg said he travelled to Bosnia in the early 1990s to help the Muslims during the war.

He said he was "terribly affected by some of the stories ... of the atrocities taking place there".

In late 1993 he returned to Pakistan and crossed the Pakistani–Afghan border with some young Pakistanis near the city of Khost.

Begg said he visited a camp where US-backed nationalist and Islamic rebels were training to fight the Soviet-backed Afghan government.

The training camp was run by either the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance or a Pakistani group fighting for Kashmir.

Begg later wrote of his time at the camp: "I had met men who seemed to me exemplary in their faith and self-sacrifice, and seen a world that awed and inspired me".

Begg says he did not participate in the training.

In 1994 he joined a charity that worked with Muslims in Bosnia.

He states he "very briefly" joined the Bosnian Army Foreign Volunteer Force: "In Bosnia, I did fight for a while. But I saw people horribly damaged, and I thought, This is not for me".

Begg first met Khalil Deek in Bosnia.

Seized by Pakistani intelligence at his home in Pakistan in February 2002, he was transferred to the custody of US Army officers, who held him in the detention centre at Bagram, Afghanistan, before transferring him to Guantanamo Bay, where he was held until January 2005.

The US authorities held Begg as an enemy combatant, claiming Begg was an al-Qaeda member, who recruited for, and provided money for, al-Qaeda training camps, and himself trained there to fight US or allied troops.

Following a "long public outcry" in the UK over the detention of British nationals, in 2004, the UK government intervened on behalf of British citizens who were being detained at Guantanamo Bay.

Later, a 2005 military investigation into reports of abuse at Bagram concluded that both deaths were caused by abuse by American guards.

President George W. Bush had Begg released without charge on 25 January 2005, despite Pentagon, CIA, and FBI objections.

Begg and other British citizens who had been detained at Guantanamo later sued the British government for complicity in their alleged abuse and torture while in US custody.

He was interviewed in Taxi to the Dark Side (2007), a documentary about the death in custody of an Afghan detainee and the mistreatment of prisoners held by Americans in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

In November 2010, the British Government announced an out-of-court financial settlement with 16 detainees, including Begg.

After his release, Begg became a media commentator on issues pertaining to US, UK and international anti-terror measures.

He toured as a speaker about Guantanamo and other detention facilities.

Begg co-authored a book, and has written newspaper and magazine articles.

In 2014, British police arrested Begg, alleging terrorist activities during the Syrian civil war.

Charges were later withdrawn and he was released when the prosecution became aware that MI5 had known of, and consented to, his travel to Syria.