MOAZZAM BEGG, the British former Guantanamo Bay detainee, has been charged with terrorist offences in Syria.
Begg, 45, from Birmingham, was charged by West Midlands Police with providing terrorist training and funding terrorism overseas.
Article continues belowThe Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
According to the BBC, Begg “is a British citizen who moved to Afghanistan with his family in 2001, before moving again to Pakistan in 2002 when the Afghanistan War started.
“He was detained in Islamabad in January 2002 and taken to Bagram internment centre in Afghanistan for about a year before being transferred to the Guantanamo camp.”
Begg is now a director of Cage, a group that campaigns “against state policies developed as part of the war on terror”, according to its website.
The Times reports that Begg has not previously been charged with any offence.
“Mr Begg has never previously been charged with an offence,” the paper says, “and has always maintained that he has only ever been involved in charity work and not terrorist activity.”