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Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has refused to discuss whether torture was used against British legal resident and longtime Guantanamo Bay prisoner Shaker Aamer, or whether the UK was complicit in widespread allegations of torture.

The US has operated the controversial military detention center on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba since 2002, employing methods of torture and failing to charge many of the detainees with crimes.

Aamer was released on 30 October of this year, after a 13 year administrative detention. He claims he was subjected to frequent abuse by the guards, including regular beatings and sleep deprivation. The US has since admitted that these and other methods of Guantanamo amount to torture.

Pressure has mounted on Blair to admit his government was aware of the extreme human rights violations at Guantanamo and did nothing to stop it, nor protect Aamer who is protected by the laws of the UK.

In an interview with the BBC, Aamer spoke about Blair’s complicity in torture. “I do not want anybody to be asked about what his role [was] in the past. I just want people to tell the truth.” He added: “I don’t believe the court will solve this problem. I don’t believe the court will bring justice because of what happened in the past.”

However, former first minister Alex Salmond is calling on Blair and former home secretary Jack Straw to speak about their awareness of Aamer’s torture.

Also speaking to the BBC, Salmond said “As in so many things, Messrs Blair and Straw have a great deal to answer for, and they have to be asked the straight question how could they possibly not have known about the fate that had befallen a British citizen.

“Governments are not meant to collaborate on the illegal abduction and then the torture of one of our own citizens. The then prime minister and home secretary have to face up and tell us exactly what they knew, and when they knew it.”

Aamer, now 48 years-old, was first detained soon after 11 September, 2001 by bounty hunters who turned him over to American soldiers at Bagram Airfield, the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan. There he was threatened, kept naked, deprived of sleep for 11 days and beaten, then taken to Kandahar where the abuses continued. This was dubbed an evaluation by American authorities. He was then transferred to Guantanamo for his remaining days as a prisoner.

Aamer has been cleared for release since 2007, yet only on 30 October was he back in Britain with his wife and four children.

American officials allege Aamer was an enemy fighter and close to Osama Bin Laden while in Afghanistan on a fake British passport. It is also alleged that Aamer confessed to these accusations, but only under torture. As a result, charges were never filed, yet Aamer remained in custody.