The families of Britons detained at a US naval base in Cuba set up for Taliban fighters have demanded that their sons be immediately turned over to face trial in Britain.
Lawyers also said they would press the British government to take action to shut down the detention camp where 288 prisoners who allegedly fought for the Taliban in Afghanistan are being held.
"I am anxious about the time it is taking for a decision to be made by the US as to the status that is to be afforded to my son," Riasoth Ahmed, father of 20-year-old detainee Ruhal, told a press conference in London.
"He is currently being held without charge and deprived of any rights," he added at an event organised by the London bar.
Ahmed said he had "faith in British justice" and that any trial here would be fair and would give his son the opportunity to defend himself.
He denied his son had connection with any militant Islamic organisation and said he had never expressed any extremist view regarding Islam or the United States.
Washington has refused to grant "prisoner of war" status to the detainees, including five Britons, held at the base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, claiming they are all "unlawful combatants".
The Red Cross among other international organisations have criticised the United States, saying all prisoners should be protected under international law until a tribunal decides their fate. Zumrati Juma, mother of 22-year-old detainee Feroz Abbasi asked that her son be put in the custody of British authorities.
"To obtain legal rights for him I want him to be brought back to the UK," she said.
Juma also revealed that Foreign Office officials had advised her not to consult lawyers about her son until he had been charged, to the dismay of the legal profession.
Louise Christian, a lawyer acting for Juma, said such instructions led to a threeweek delay before Juma sought advice, by which time Abbasi had been detained for a month.
Voicing his concern at the news, the president of the Law Society David McIntosh said that "the whole basis of access to justice is undermined if anybody is told not to get in touch with a lawyer. We are the gateway to justice."
Christian said she would ask the High Court to order the British government to put an end to the conditions of detention in Cuba based on UN regulations.
She believed that interrogation of Abbasi by an agent of MI6, Britain's foreign intelligence service, was tantamount to complicity. McIntosh said he would be writing to Prime Minister Tony Blair to ask him to take action to allow lawyers to have access to the prisoners.
Guy Goodwin-Gill, an author of a document setting out a legal opinion on the status and rights of the detainees, said the prisoners were entitled to protection whatever their status.
"It's quite clear that there are rights of defendants that have not been acknowledged," he said.
"The presumption of innocence seems to have been disregarded. We need to ask the British government whether they are doing enough to guarantee human rights."
AFP