'I could have stopped the Sydney siege'
Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib claims he could have stopped the Sydney siege if he had been allowed to negotiate with gunman Man Haron Monis.
Monis worked on the NSW election campaign trail for Mr Habib, after the United States wrongly accused him of being an "enemy combatant", reports Fairfax Media.
Mr Habib, an Australian citizen, sensationally claims that Monis did not intend to kill any of the hostages he took in the Lindt cafe in Martin Place and that he is '100 per cent' sure he could have convinced Monis to give himself up.
Mother of three Katrina Dawson and Lindt cafe manager Tori Johnson lost their lives in the 16 hour ordeal.
He says that NSW Police would not let him negotiate with Monis. He was among other Muslim leaders who offered to try and diffuse the siege situation.
"This man is not violent...I believe this man, in this situation, prepare himself to be shot – but he doesn't want to shoot somebody.
"He is prepared to be killed but he doesn't want to kill anybody. He is prepared to be harmed but he doesn't want to harm anybody," Mr Habib told Fairfax Media.
The two men first met while they were protesting in support of detainees at the Villawood detention centre.
Monis also helped Mr Habib in his campaign for the state election of March 2007 by pamphleting, in which the Egyptian-Australian took about 4 per cent of the vote, when he stood as an Independent candidate.
Mr Habib was released from Guantanamo Bay without charge in January 2005 after being held for more than three years.
It was confirmed five years later by an Egyptian intelligence officer that he had been tortured in the presence of an Australian official.
Mr Habib was soon given an undisclosed payment by the federal government, reports Fairfax.
He claims that Monis just wanted 'attention' and he says he called the Attotney General's office twice on the day of the siege to offer help.
Monis took the hostages while he was on bail after being charged for being an accessory to the murder for his ex-wife who was stabbed and set on fire in a west Sydney stairwell.
His partner Amirah Droudis had her bail cancelled last week by a judge, she is charged with murder and is due to next appear in court in February.
Monis was also accused of the sexual assault of seven women who had attended his spiritual healing practice in western Sydney.
