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Lawyers push for prisoner access

U.S. marines guard Camp X-Ray

LONDON, England – Two leading British law organisations have urged the UK government to push for immediate access to prisoners held by the U.S. in Cuba.

Five Britons are among hundreds of suspected al Qaeda and Taliban fighters held at Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay.

The Law Society and the Bar Human Rights Committee have made many calls to U.S. and UK officials for lawyers to be given access.

"The British government must not stand by silently while the basic rights of British detainees are being trampled on by the U.S., themselves signed up to the international conventions that created these rights in the first place," said Mark Muller, Deputy Chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee.

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The two groups said the U.S. authorities should respect the human rights of prisoners.

"Access to a lawyer was a basic human right and despite repeated requests to the U.S. Embassy (in London) and the (UK) Foreign Office this has been denied Guantanamo Bay detainees."

The U.S. has maintained that some of the inmates were not prisoners of war, but unlawful combatants, while international organisations, including the Red Cross, have urged them to grant them that status.

Granting prisoner of war status to the captives would have given them internationally recognised rights, including the right to disclose only their name, rank and serial number under interrogation and to go home as soon as the conflict ended.

Earlier this month U.S. President George W. Bush agreed to apply the Geneva Conventions to Taliban prisoners because Afghanistan was a signatory, even though the Taliban regime was not recognised by Washington. But he said the al Qaeda network could not be considered a state that is party to the treaty.

Despite acknowledging the conventions applied to the Taliban, Washington said that group would not be granted full prisoner of war status.

UK Law Society President David McIntosh said authorities needed to recognise international law.

"Irrespective of what these prisoners are accused of, where they were arrested or whether they are to be prosecuted or not, it is a basic human right to have access to legal advice.

"I will be writing to the Prime Minister (Tony Blair) to ask him to take action to ensure that these detainees see a lawyer immediately."

Their action was supported by the mother of one detained Briton, who also demanded independent medical experts have access to her son.

Zumrati Juma received a letter from 22-year-old Feroz Abbasi on an official U.S. military document marked "prisoner of war mail."

London-based lawyer Louise Christian, acting on Abbasi's behalf, said it suggested the military were treating him as a POW despite the U.S. government's insistence that the detainees were denied this status.

"This is very important, because if they are being recognised as prisoners of war they should be released immediately as hostilities have now ceased."

The handwritten letter, the first received by any relative of the Britons held in high security at Guantanamo Bay, arrived on Thursday.

It read: "Dear Family, I am putting my trust in Allah that he has been keeping you all healthy and well. I am fine and love you all very much. Please do not worry about me. Feroz."

Abbasi's signature is on the reverse with his "internment serial number", the document printed in Britain's Sunday Times showed.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said that British prisoners may be allowed to return to the UK provided they are prosecuted in this country.

He told the Telegraph Group that the government would have to pledge to have them properly dealt with by the courts, and have to make them available for further interrogation by the U.S. authorities.