Omar Deghayes

Omar Amer Deghayes (born November 28, 1969) (عمر عامر الدغيس) is a Libyan citizen who had legal residency status with surviving members of his family in the United Kingdom since childhood.

Omar Deghayes was born in Tripoli, Libya in 1969.

His father was an attorney and a prominent figure in Libya, but got at cross purposes with Muammar Gaddafi.

After his father was killed by the Libyan government in 1980, al-Walid's family was eventually able to leave in two groups, in 1985 and 1986.

His mother's request for asylum in Britain was granted in 1987.

Deghayes grew up in a secular household and was granted status as a legal resident.

As a college student, while studying at University of Wolverhampton and later in Huddersfield, he began to explore Islam.

His mother and sister became British citizens.

He became an attorney.

As a young man, he started working in Afghanistan, where he worked on NGOs, efforts at education and rural development.

After living in Afghanistan for some time, he married an Afghan woman and they had a child together.

After his long imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay detention camp, they divorced.

After the United States invasion of Afghanistan in the fall of 2001, Deghayes moved temporarily to Pakistan for what he thought would be safety with his Afghan wife and child.

He has said that he was arrested, along with his family, by bounty hunters in Pakistan.

He was "sold" to the American forces and taken into military custody.

He was first held and interrogated at the Bagram Theater Internment Facility.

His wife and child were later released.

He was arrested in Pakistan in 2002.

Deghaye and another former detainee were arrested under a Spanish warrant on allegations of al-Qaeda involvement in 2003; he was released on bail while his case is considered.

His attorney Clive Stafford Smith said that in 2005 an investigation by BBC Newsnight discovered that, shortly before Deghaye's arrest, an anonymous informant had mistakenly identified him to Spanish authorities as appearing in a videotape including Arab mujahideen among rebels in Chechnya.

They issued a warrant for his arrest and notified the Americans, who later took him into custody in Pakistan.

In 2006, the British High Court considered whether the United Kingdom government should petition the United States government on behalf of Guantánamo detainees who had legal British residency status.

(It had already petitioned on behalf of British citizens.) The High Court concluded that it did not have the authority to make recommendation in the area of foreign affairs, but said that the evidence that the British residents were being tortured was "powerful".

He was held by the United States as an enemy combatant at Guantanamo Bay detention camp from 2002 until December 18, 2007.

He was released without charges and returned to Britain, where he lives.

His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 727.

Deghayes says he was blinded permanently in one eye, after a guard at Guantanamo gouged his eyes with his fingers.

Deghayes was never charged with any crime at Guantanamo.

When Deghayes was a child, his father, a prominent attorney and union organiser, was arrested and executed by Muammar Gaddafi's government in Libya.

His mother took him and his siblings to the United Kingdom, where they had often visited for extended stays, and gained asylum as refugees.

They lived in Brighton.

According to the Birmingham Post, Deghayes was a "laws graduate"; he studied law at the University of Wolverhampton and later studied in Huddersfield.

During Deghaye's detention at Guantanamo, his family in Great Britain mounted a campaign to free him, which received the support of the Brighton Argus newspaper and all six Members of Parliament in Sussex, where Omar Deghayes had resided for many years.

This is where his family still lives.

In August 2007, the British government under Gordon Brown requested Deghaye's release.

He was released on 18 December 2007 and returned to Britain.

Since his return to Britain in December 2007, Deghayes has married a second time.

Deghayes had three nephews fighting for Al Qaeda's al-Nusra Front in the Syrian Civil War, Amer Deghayes (20), Abdullah (18) and Jaffar (then 16).

Abdullah was killed in 2014, with Amer wounded in the same battle.

Jaffar was killed six months later at the age of just 17.