10 March 2004

Four Guantanamo Britons held for questioning

Counter-terrorism officers are continuing to question four of the five Britons who returned to the UK from Guantanamo Bay yesterday.

The men – Tarek Dergoul, from London, and Rhuhel Ahmed, Asif Iqbal and Shafiq Rasul, all from Tipton in West Midlands – flew into RAF Northolt in Middlesex late last night. They were arrested by the Metropolitan police immediately on arrival. Under the Terrorism Act 2000, the men can be held for up to 14 days.

A fifth man, Jamal Udeen, from Manchester, was released shortly after arriving in the UK.

The five had been held by US authorities for since the conflict in Afghanistan two years ago.

In total, there were nine British nationals in US custody. The four Britons remaining in custody in Cuba – Feroz Abbasi, Richard Belmar, and Martin Mubanga, all from London, and Moazzam Begg, form Birmingham – are being treated differently because they were arrested inside the Afghan combat zone, Mr Blunkett has said.

Guantanamo Bay's Camp Delta holds around 600 people. US authorities allege that all the detainees, who are being held without trial, are members of Taleban or Al Qaida. Some of the internees removed from Afghanistan have now been interned for two years.

Human rights groups claim that the detainees should either be granted prisoner of war status or brought before a 'competent tribunal' to determine their status, as required by Article 5 of the Third Geneva Convention.

US government officials refer to the detainees as "enemy combatants" or "terrorists".

(gmcg)