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UK challenged over Camp X-Ray

LONDON, England -- UK lawyers are launching legal action against the British government for allegedly failing to press the U.S. to respect the rights of Camp X-Ray prisoners.

Solicitors acting for Feroz Abbasi, one of five Britons held at Cuba's Guantanamo Bay, said they are applying for a judicial review after officials were unable to provide a full response to their pleas for more information on the plight of their client.

United Nations guidelines implicate Britain in the use of controversial conditions at the base, solicitor Louise Christian said, opening the way for a case under the Human Rights Act in the British courts.

She said: "I received a fax from the Treasury solicitors which said they... were now unlikely to be able to respond until the end of the week.

"As the fundamental human rights of my clients are at issue I will not be able to wait that long.

"We are going ahead with proceedings but it may take until the end of the week or the beginning of next week to get things moving."

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Abbasi was captured by U.S. troops in December after allegedly helping defend the Taliban stronghold of Konduz in northern Afghanistan.

Earlier this month, President George W. Bush said the Geneva Convention regarding prisoner rights applied to Taliban prisoners -- but not to captured al Qaeda terrorists.

But his administration has refused to consider classifying any of the 300 detainees from 26 countries as prisoners of war, saying they were fighting for an outlawed terrorist group and an unrecognised government.

Under U.N. regulations, a state can be held responsible for the unlawful act of another state if it "knowingly aids in the commission" of the act.

Members of Britain's legal profession have also voiced concern at claims that Foreign Office officials had advised the mother of Abbasi, Zumrati Juma, not to consult lawyers about her son's case.

Ms Juma, a nurse from Croydon, south London, earlier publicly called on Prime Minister Tony Blair to persuade the US government to hand her 22-year-old son to British authorities.

The Foreign Office has denied giving her such advice.

Earlier this week, three U.S. human rights organisations filed a petition challenging the detention of the suspects without charge or "prisoner of war" protections.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, the Human Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School and the Center for Justice and International Law called the detentions illegal in a petition filed with the Organization of American States' Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.