Guantanamo Bay plans criticised

Plans by US authorities to review the cases of Guantanamo Bay prisoners have been criticised by the lawyer for a British family whose son is detained.

Louise Christian, who acts for the family of Feroz Abbasi, said such a review was “no improvement” to the lack of judicial process for detainees.

Britons are among about 650 prisoners held by the US who will have their detentions reviewed once a year.

The lack of charges or trials have been criticised by human rights lawyers.

Ms Christian questioned how the detainees could appear before a review board if they did not know what charges or evidence they faced.

She told BBC News Online: “This is not even a fig leaf on any kind of access to legal procedures. It’s not any kind of judicial improvement.”

Even if Abbasi did appear before the board, she would not be able to influence it, as Abbasi is denied access to a lawyer, she said.

“This is simply an administrative review by politicians who have already agreed to imprison them,” she said.

Her concerns were echoed by Amnesty International, which called on the UK government to challenge the proposals on behalf of all inmates, not just Britons.

The maximum-security prison at Guantanamo Bay holds suspected al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters from more than 40 countries captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

“We’re very concerned that officials said this was something akin to a parole board; how can you have a parole board hearing each year for people who haven’t been convicted of criminal offences?” said Amnesty’s Sarah Greene.

She said there was an “insinuation” the detentions could carry on for many years.

She told BBC News24: “We want to see the UK government laying out the US authorities that this is a flagrant breach of international law, it is undermining international law and setting a very bad example.

“To make the basic point that people cannot be held for an indefinite detention and placed in this kind of legal limbo, and they must be charged with recognisable offences or released.”

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said new panels would determine whether inmates remained a threat to America.

But he again defended the continued detention of the prisoners without charges as “a security necessity”.

Security issues

The Foreign Office said it had no reaction to the plans as “it was a matter for the US”.

Prime Minister Tony Blair told MPs on Wednesday negotiations were continuing about whether the Britons should be returned to the UK or tried by the US.

He apologised for the length of time the process was taking, but said there were “very good reasons” for the delay.

“We want to make sure that if people are brought back here - I say this without any disrespect to those people - that does not in any shape or form endanger the security of this country,” Mr Blair said.

Mr Rumsfeld’s comments came as a Spanish detainee was transferred from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to Spain in the first such release of its kind.

Abderrahman Ahmad - captured in Afghanistan in 2001 - now faces questioning about his alleged involvement with a Spanish al-Qaeda cell.

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