87 Facts About Moazzam Begg

Moazzam Begg 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.

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.

Moazzam 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.

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

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

Moazzam Begg toured as a speaker about Guantanamo and other detention facilities.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Moazzam 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.

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

Moazzam 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".

Moazzam Begg tried to travel to Chechnya, in the early 1990s during its war with Russia.

In 1994, Moazzam Begg was arrested charged with conspiracy to defraud the Department of Social Security.

The fraud charges against Moazzam Begg were dropped for lack of evidence.

Moazzam Begg insisted that the goggles and flak jacket were from his charity work in Bosnia and Chechnya and denied owning any "extremist Islamic literature" and noted the items seized were identical to those that many aid workers operating in conflict zones carry.

Moazzam Begg's father said Begg had been collecting military paraphernalia as a hobby since childhood.

Pentagon officials said that Moazzam Begg trained at three terrorist camps associated with al-Qaeda.

Moazzam Begg has denied all these charges, saying that he has "never planned, aided or participated in any attacks against Westerners".

In 1995, Moazzam Begg married, and in early 1998, he and his new family moved to Peshawar, Pakistan.

An American counterterrorism official claimed that the CIA and MI5 suspected Moazzam Begg had worked with Khalil Deek, who lived in Peshawar at that time, to create a CD-ROM terrorist manual.

Moazzam Begg said in interviews that he had met Deek in Bosnia and later collaborated with him on a business enterprise to sell traditional Pakistani clothing, but said he had never met Zubaydah.

Moazzam Begg says it was run by Iraqi Kurds, not by al-Qaeda.

Moazzam Begg donated a few hundred British pounds to that camp and a third training camp.

Defense Department officials said that Moazzam Begg's sworn statements state he trained at Derunta and two other Afghan camps.

Moazzam Begg denied saying that, but acknowledged signing some documents while in custody because he feared for his life.

Moazzam Begg returned to Birmingham in 1998 and, along with Imran Khan, a former stockbroker, opened the 'Maktabah Al Ansar' Islamic book and video shop, in Sparkhill, Birmingham.

In 1999, Moazzam Begg's bookstore commissioned and published a book by Dhiren Barot about Barot's experiences in Kashmir, entitled The Army of Madinah in Kashmir.

Moazzam Begg considered it an economical place to bring up his family, and one where they would not be harassed for their race.

Moazzam Begg has since criticised the Taliban for its human rights abuses.

Moazzam Begg says that he moved to Kabul to build wells in northwest Afghanistan, where there had been a drought in 2000.

Moazzam Begg says while still in the UK, he, and others, had raised money and had begun providing equipment for a school.

Moazzam Begg says he was in the process of starting the school, and intended to work in it as an aid worker.

The Allied attack on Afghanistan began in October 2001, and, following the fall of the Taliban, a US Justice Department dossier on Moazzam Begg alleges that he joined their retreat to the Tora Bora mountains.

Moazzam Begg says that he and his family intended to evacuate to Islamabad in Pakistan for safety.

Moazzam Begg maintains that he is unaware of such a transaction, and that no one has ever shown him the document.

In February 2002, Moazzam Begg was seized at his rented home in Islamabad by, what Moazzam Begg believes were, Pakistani agents working on behalf of the US.

Moazzam Begg's family maintained it was a case of mistaken identity.

Moazzam Begg says the Pakistanis treated him well and that after several weeks, they transferred him to United States Army officers in Bagram, near Kabul.

Moazzam Begg was held at Bagram Theater Internment Facility from February 2002 to February 2003.

Moazzam Begg wrote: "This culminated, in my opinion, with the deaths of two fellow detainees, at the hands of US military personnel, to which I myself was partially witness".

Moazzam Begg wrote after his release that, he believed, one of the reasons he had continued to be detained was because he had been a witness to the two killings.

Guantanamo files leaked in 2011 revealed that, nine months after Moazzam Begg's capture, the Department of Defence had concluded that Moazzam Begg was a "confirmed member of al-Qaida," and that he had been an instructor at the Derunta training camp, as well as having attended the al-Badr and Harakat aI-Ansar training camps.

On 2 February 2003, Moazzam Begg was transferred to United States military custody at Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

Moazzam Begg was held in Guantanamo Bay for just under two years, the first almost 600 days of which were spent in solitary confinement.

Moazzam Begg was not charged with any crime and was not allowed to consult legal counsel for the majority of the time he spent there.

In July 2004, Moazzam Begg wrote a letter saying he was not tortured in Guantanamo, though the conditions were "torturous".

Late in 2004, Clive Stafford Smith visited Moazzam Begg and said he heard "credible and consistent evidence" from Moazzam Begg of torture, including the use of strappado.

Whitman quoted from a single-spaced eight-page confession that Moazzam Begg had signed while incarcerated in Bagram: "I was armed and prepared to fight alongside the Taliban and al-Qaeda against the US and others, and eventually retreated to Tora Bora to flee from US forces when our front lines collapsed".

Moazzam Begg maintains the confession is false, and that he gave it while under duress.

Moazzam Begg gave a number of presentations to the Islamic Society at University College London in 2007, at a time that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was its president.

The Times reported that Moazzam Begg took part in the 'War on Terror Week' UCL presentations at Abdulmutallab's invitation.

Moazzam Begg said that he does not recall Abdulmutallab, and that he was told that the 'War on Terror Week' UCL presentations were organised by Qasim Rafiq, a friend of Abdulmuttalab's.

Moazzam Begg was told Abdulmutallab did not attend any of the lectures.

Moazzam Begg interviewed American imam, and alleged al-Qaeda senior figure, Anwar al-Awlaki after al-Awlaki was released from jail in Yemen in 2007.

Moazzam Begg did so based on information obtained while Begg was in US custody.

Moazzam Begg said "there are strong grounds for believing that, on leaving the UK, [Begg] would take part in activities against the United Kingdom or allied targets".

The Home Office said that Moazzam Begg had been assessed as having been involved in terrorist activity due to a trip to Syria the previous year.

Moazzam Begg claimed that the real reason for the confiscation was his campaign to prove UK and US complicity in the use of torture and rendition of suspects, and that he had been stopped for questioning almost every time he had travelled, even when returning from an official speaking invitation at the European Parliament.

In January 2022, Moazzam Begg announced he was taking legal action for a judicial review of the British Home Secretary's rejection of his application for a passport, which had been confiscated in 2013.

In 2010, referring to Afghanistan, Moazzam Begg said he completely supported the inalienable right of the people to fight "foreign occupation".

Moazzam Begg has worked as outreach director for the charitable organisation and advocacy group CAGE, to represent those detainees still held at Guantanamo, as well as to help those who have been released to get services and integrate into society.

Moazzam Begg has travelled on speaking tours, and worked to persuade governments to accept former detainees for resettlement.

In December 2005, Moazzam Begg made a video appeal to the Swords of Righteousness Brigade, the Iraqi kidnappers of four Western peace workers, asking for their release.

Moazzam Begg stated that 'It is time to stop this cycle of uncontrolled rage and internecine violence that will only drive us to the pits of hell.

Moazzam Begg has appeared as a commentator on radio and television interviews and documentaries, including the BBC's Panorama and Newsnight shows, PBS's The Prisoner, Al-Jazeera's Prisoner 345, Taking Liberties, and Torturing Democracy, and National Geographic's Guantanamo's Secrets.

Moazzam Begg has authored pieces which have appeared in newspapers and magazines.

Moazzam Begg has toured as a speaker about his time in detention facilities, calling the British response to terrorism racist, and disproportionate to anti-terror measures and legislation during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

In January 2009, Moazzam Begg toured the UK with former Guantanamo guard Christopher Arendt, in the Two Sides, One Story tour.

Moazzam Begg has campaigned against US wartime policy with human rights organisations such as Reprieve, Amnesty International, the Center for Constitutional Rights, PeaceMaker and Conflicts Forum.

In July 2015, Moazzam Begg endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election.

Moazzam Begg co-authored a book released in March 2006 about his Guantanamo experiences, it was co-written with Victoria Brittain, a former associate foreign editor of The Guardian.

Moazzam Begg earned the "Published Writer Award" for the book, at the annual Muslim Writers Awards in March 2008.

In 2009, Moazzam Begg was an advisor, and was due to appear as himself, for the Scottish software company T-Enterprise in the development of a video game entitled Rendition: Guantanamo, for Microsoft's Xbox 360.

Moazzam Begg said that, when first approached, he hesitated, "I was worried that it might trivialise my experience", but that he would "help to bring those issues to people who would not usually think about it".

Moazzam Begg said its "Counter Terror With Justice" campaign "constitutes a threat to human rights".

Moazzam Begg filed a complaint with the Press Complaints Commission against The Sunday Times for publishing an accusation of links between Amnesty and the Taliban.

Amnesty International posted a response to press coverage of the incident by Claudio Cordone, Amnesty Secretary General, pointing out that Amnesty's work with Moazzam Begg had "focused exclusively on highlighting the human rights violations committed in Guantanamo Bay".

In February 2014, Moazzam Begg was arrested by West Midlands Police on suspicion of attending a terrorist training camp and facilitating terrorism overseas.

In October 2014, shortly before his trial was due to start, Moazzam Begg was released after the prosecution announced that they would be offering no evidence due to documents having come into their possession showing that MI5 had been aware of, and had consented to, Moazzam Begg's travels to Syria.

West Midlands Police said "new evidence had come to light" and immediately following the verdict, its assistant chief constable said the police fully accepted that Moazzam Begg was an innocent man.