By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com
The road back from The Road to Guantánamo: rumors of freedom of speech unwarranted
The actors who starred in Michael Winterbottom’s award-winning The Road to Guantánamo were given a good talking-to under terror act on their return from the Berlin Film Festival, reports the Guardian’s Vikram Dodd: “Four actors who play al-Qaida suspects… were detained by the police at Luton airport as they returned… and questioned under anti-terror laws, alongside two of the former terrorism suspects they play on screen. They were returning last Thursday after the premiere… [The Road to Guantánam] depicts the life of three men from Tipton in the West Midlands, who go to Afghanistan and end up being held for two years by the US at its military base on Cuba before being released without charge… It depicts the alleged shackling, torture and other ill treatment the Tipton detainees claim they suffered at the hands of the Americans. The film’s producers say four actors from the film, who all play terrorism suspects, were detained at Luton airport after flying back from Germany on an easyJet flight. They included Rizwan Ahmed and Farhad Harun, who were stopped along with Shafiq Rasul and Rhuhel Ahmed, the former Guantánamo inmates they play on screen… Rizwan Ahmed said police swore at him and asked if he had become an actor to further the Islamic cause. He said he was at first denied access to a lawyer and was questioned about his views on the Iraq war by a policewoman. “She asked me whether I intended to do more documentary films, specifically more political ones like The Road to Guantánamo. She asked ‘Did you become an actor mainly to do films like this, to publicise the struggles of Muslims?'” Mr Ahmed alleged that he had a telephone wrestled from his hand as he tried to contact a lawyer and was later abused. He claimed that one police officer had called him a “fucker”. A spokeswoman for Bedfordshire police was reassuring: none of the men had been arrested. “The police officers wanted to ask them some questions under the counter-terrorism act… All were released within the hour. Part of the counter-terrorism act allows us to stop and examine people if something happens that might be suspicious.” If only the UK would turn its security over to the United Arab Emirates, things like this would never happen.