MAYER WAKEFIELD applauds Rosamund Pike’s punchy and tragic portrayal of a multi-tasking mother and high court judge
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Guantanamo Kid: The True Story of Mohammed El-Gharani
Obscenity of the US hell camp exposed in graphic story of a child's imprisonment
FIONA O CONNOR recommends an unflinching depiction of child sexual abuse and its aftershocks, set in a working-class Liverpool family
New releases from Paul Weller, Wet Leg, and Dino Saluzzi
PAUL DONOVAN relishes the spectacle of a 1950s detective in pursuit of a 500-year-old murder mystery
MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family
GUILLERMO THOMAS is intrigued by a history of the Middle East that demonstrates how promising post colonial beginnings were snuffed out by Western imperialist interests
MOHAMMED EL-GHARANI, aged 14 and of Chadian parentage, went to Pakistan from Saudi Arabia in 2001 to learn English. Travelling on a Chadian passport with faked personal data facilitated by a sympathetic consular official — he was a minor — he stayed in Karachi with relatives.
His life was organised around English classes, football and prayers until one day, three months after 9/11, he was detained outside a mosque because of his Saudi accent. After a period of incarceration, interrogation and torture by Pakistani security officials he and dozens of others were each sold as “confirmed” terrorists to the US for $5,000.
Naively, El-Gharani believed that US officials would soon realise that he was innocent, release him and allow his return to Saudi Arabia. He had a rude awakening in store.
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New releases from Hannah Rose Platt, Kemp Harris, and Spear Of Destiny
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