International

A Dream Destroyed

Algerian Karim Saidi was visiting his bank when he was arrested as an al-Qaida suspect and locked up in Belmarsh. He insists he came to the UK only in search of a better life. This is his story

Algeria can be a scary place, but I'd always felt safe in England. That was until early last year, when one afternoon I went to the bank, and 10 armed policemen bundled me into an unmarked van on suspicion of being an al-Qaida terrorist. I ended up in Belmarsh for five months without any charge being brought against me, petrified that I would be deported to Guantánamo Bay.

I came to the west not to blow it up but to look for a better life. I'd slept on the kitchen floor in Algeria. The earthquake in 1995 had destroyed most of our flat except the kitchen and the lounge. Nine of us lived in these two remaining rooms. The kids took turns to do their homework using the toilet seat as a table. My dad was mentally ill and would often attack my mother. As the eldest son, I'd clean up her blood and take her to hospital.

I left school for college to study literature but could never concentrate with all the stress of my family situation. It was hopeless. I wanted to get my mum and the kids out of that house, but we had no money and nowhere to go. I couldn't find any work, except sharing my friend's banana stall for £50 a month, and I felt constantly frustrated. I started thinking about going abroad.

After six years of working on the stall and doing a few other odd jobs, I'd saved enough money to buy a visa. I told my mum it would only be for a few months. I wanted to be able to help my family, buy a house for us all, then get married. There was one girl I particularly liked but there was no way her father would have let me marry her when I had nothing. In Algeria there are men of 45 killing themselves because they still can't afford to get married.

I took the boat to Marseille with a visitor's visa and watched the port of Algiers grow smaller in the distance. It isn't easy to leave your country. I worked for a short time in France, helping some friends in a market there, then saved enough money to buy a fake Belgian passport. I came to England via the Eurostar. Nobody stopped me. I was wearing a business suit and walked with a confident air. As soon as I felt safe, I called my friends in Leeds and I went there. I lived off their generosity for two months until I found a job washing up in a restaurant. I was relieved to be working but I was paid £3.50 an hour. I paid tax, so my money didn't go very far (as a supposed Belgian, I was able to get a temporary National Insurance number). But I was able to send my brothers and sisters some really good clothes.

I was quite nervous about working illegally and knew that there was only one way to fix that problem - get married. But business marriages cost £6,000. I had one bank account already that I could try to get a loan from, but knew that any loan offered wouldn't be enough, because of my low income. So I decided to open a second bank account and eventually ask for a loan there too. This was the worst mistake of my whole life.

I went to the bank, filled in an application and left it with them. The next day, a man from the bank called me on my mobile, asking me to come in and answer a few extra questions, which I said I would do happily. As soon as I arrived I was taken into this little room. A man said, "We'll be with you in a minute," but something about him made me feel really uneasy, so I said I wanted to go outside and make a phone call. "No, use this phone," they smiled, then quickly locked the door. Suddenly the bank was full of armed police who surrounded me, handcuffed me and took me away in a van. I'd been trapped.

When we arrived at the police station, I was taken into a room with electronic security doors. Two policemen arrived from Special Branch. I thought it would be best to admit everything. I explained that I had entered Britain with false documents and that I had been working illegally, but they looked straight at me and said, "Do you know what al-Qaida is?" I replied, "Of course, they are terrorists." Then they asked me directly, "Are you a member of al-Qaida?" I thought I was going to throw up - in Algeria people have been shot or made to disappear just for having the same name as a terrorist. I started shouting that I was nothing to do with them and that whoever they were looking for, it definitely wasn't me. They were very direct but polite to me, then asked someone to get me food and drink. I couldn't touch it. I had watched the news a few times and all I could think about was that I might be sent to Guantánamo and no one would ever hear from me again.

In the morning it began again. They kept going, "Come on, tell us how you really feel about al-Qaida." I was saying, "I told you. I'm just a normal person. I don't want trouble. All I know about politics is bits from the TV. I've got nothing against the west. I would never hurt anybody." While I was in there, the police raided my flat, where they found nothing. Special Branch officers also visited the restaurant where I'd been working, which led to several foreigners being sacked immediately as the managers wanted to cover themselves. "We've finished interviewing you now," an officer said at the end of the third day. I was put in a van and after a quick court announcement was sent to prison. I felt very confused and couldn't understand exactly what I was being

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