The London chef who was forsaken for five years in Guantanamo [View All]

June 16, 2007
The London chef who was forsaken for five years in Guantanamo

Like Robert the Bruce in his cell, Ahmed Errachidi drew inspiration
from a creature’s struggle as he waited for the allegations against
him to crumble

Sean O’Neill

Ahmed Errachidi had never heard the story of Robert the Bruce and the indefatigable spider until this week. But in the cell blocks of Guantanamo Bay, Inmate 590 learnt the same lesson as the Scottish King, in the same hard way.

Just as the Bruce took heart from the spider, the most inspiring moment in Mr Errachidi’s five-and-a-half years of internment came as he watched a solitary ant’s struggle for life. The insect was trapped inside the fortified glass dome housing the security camera that watched Mr Errachidi’s every move in his isolation cell. It was trying to climb out, but kept slipping backwards again and again.

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{Errachidi} was freed after the sole allegation against him – that he had been a senior figure at an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in July 2001 – fell apart. The claim came from an unidentified source and was proved false by lawyers from the London-based charity Reprieve.

According to payslips, witness statements and bank records, Mr Errachidi was a long way from Afghanistan during July 2001 – working in the kitchens of the Westbury Hotel, Mayfair. The US military eventually declared Mr Errachidi “approved to leave Guantanamo” – as close as it comes to proclaiming him innocent.

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1940199.ece