Leaders decide fate of Guantanamo Bay two
Tony Blair and George W Bush have announced that they will be releasing a joint statement today on the fate of two Britons currently being held at Guantanamo Bay.
Moazzam Begg and Feroz Abbasi are facing a US military tribunal at the secure military base. If convicted on terrorism charges they could face the death penalty.
However, the prime minister has been under increasing pressure to call on President Bush to extradite the pair to the UK so they can face justice here.
President Bush has promised to “work with the British government on this issue.”
But he has also insisted: “These were illegal combatants. They were picked up off the battlefield aiding and abetting the Taleban.”
He branded the two British nationals “bad people”.
Stephen Jakobi of Fair Trials Abroad claimed that Mr Bush’s comment was “the end of any prospect of a fair trial”.
He said: “Unless Tony Blair can announce a radical change of policy on mode of trial today he will be assisting in a formula for dishonourable surrender of sovereignty and the duty to protect his own citizens’ human rights.”
Mr Blair said it was important to realise the “context in which all this arises”, adding: “Without saying anything about any specific case at all, the context of the situation in which the al-Qaeda and the Taleban were operating together in Afghanistan against American and British forces.”
Moazzam Begg’s father Azmat has called on Mr Blair to demand his son’s return to the UK and insists that his son is innocent.
Mr Begg and Mr Abbasi are among six detainees facing trial and possible execution for alleged links to al Qaeda.
More than 200 MPs have signed a parliamentary petition calling for the men to be repatriated.
