‘Serious reservations’ over Guantanamo trials
Foreign Office Minister Baroness Symons has voiced “serious reservations” about the prospect of British detainees at Guantanamo Bay being tried by US military tribunals.
Two Brits are among six individuals facing trial after President Bush last night authorised the first prosecutions of terror suspects being held at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Moazzam Begg, 35, from Sparkbrook, Birmingham, and Feroz Abbasi, 23, from Croydon, are reported to be among the six detainees who could stand before a military court.
None of the 600 Guantanamo prisoners, many of whom were foot soldiers for the Taleban, has yet been charged, although many have been held without access to legal advice for more than 18 months.
Mr Bush has made it clear that the death penalty could be applied if the suspects are found guilty by a unanimous verdict.
Human rights organisations have been outraged at the treatment of prisoners, who have been held in harsh conditions without the right of trial or access to lawyers.
A military prosecutor will now be picked by the Pentagon to draw up charges against them. The Pentagon has named a chief prosecutor and a chief lawyer to oversee representation for the defendants.
The UK shadow foreign secretary called on the Government to make available all its information regarding the Britons’ situation.
‘The Government has to act, and the first thing is for it to tell us what it has been discussing with our American colleagues about the way that these tribunals are going to operate’, Conservative MP Michael Ancram said.
‘Until we know that all we can do is speculate, and I don’t think that speculation helps’.
Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell MP warned that the proposed tribunals had no proper legal foundation and were not subject to the jurisdiction of any recognised legal system.
“The issue is further complicated by reports that the tribunals may have the power to impose the death penalty”, he said.
“The British government must take every possible step to see that British citizens receive a fair trial”.
Speaking in a BBC radio interview this afternoon, Foreign Office Minister Baroness Symons insisted that the Government was committed to a vigorous pursuit of the Americans over concerns about the likely quality of evidence and defence representation during the trials.
‘I’ve got serious reservations, both about the principle of using military commissions, and then about the way in which those commissions are going to operate’, she said.
The baroness said that it was now up to the British government ‘to pursue vigorously the issue about the access to lawyers, about the standards of the evidence that will be adopted, about any appeals procedure as well’.
‘It is now up to us to have a very vigorous discussion with the United States, about securing a fair trial for the individuals involved’.
