Guantanamo detainee's wife appeals for his release

The British wife of a Saudi man held at the US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay appealed for his release in an interview published today, just days after another detainee was returned to Britain.

The British wife of a Saudi man held at the US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay appealed for his release in an interview published on Wednesday, just days after another detainee was returned to Britain.

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Zin Aamer, 33, told The Independent newspaper that her children could not understand why her husband, 42-year-old Shaker Aamer, was still being held at the US facility.

Her comments follow the release this week of Ethiopia-born British resident Binyam Mohamed, the first transfer out of Guantanamo under US President Barack Obama, who ordered the closure of the "war on terror" prison on Cuba last month.

"The kids keep asking me why wasn't Shaker on the plane with Binyam," Zin Aamer told The Independent.

"Of course, I am happy for Binyam but the kids don't understand why they can't see their father and why it is taking so long. I have to explain to them that he has not been forsaken, that they must be patient."

A Foreign Office spokesman said London had requested the release of Aamer, the last British resident in Guantanamo, "but the US government has so far declined to agree on his return to the UK."