British Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently stated that he would like to see
Guantanamo Bay closed down as soon as possible. But lawyers and human rights campaigners accused him of double standards claiming the British Government is running its own Guantanamo Bay, hidden away in leafy Worcestershire.
At least six men, four Algerians and two Jordanians are being held in a high risk unit in HMP Long Lartin without trial and without charge, indefinitely. One of the detainees, Algerian-born Dr Hider Hanani, has been held as a high category prisoner for seven years and was arrested before the events of 9/11.
This week, marking his seventh anniversary behind bars, he said: If I am guilty of anything then charge me and put me through the courts. We would all welcome our day in court…we are not asking for special treatment, we are just asking for the same rights as anyone else. Gordon Brown has condemned Guantanamo Bay and yet we are also being held without charge, without trial.
Hanani, a medical doctor, is being held in a high security block with Jordanian Abu Qatada and four other Arabs who are all fighting deportation orders. The cost to the taxpayer is now thought to be running into millions of pounds in terms of security and legal aid.
Revelations that Britain runs its own version of Guantanamo Bay have come in the same month as a European judgment, from which there is no appeal, which binds all the countries of the Council of Europe, including Britain. It throws into question Britain's terror deportation programme, which relies on diplomatic assurances and memoranda of understanding from several countries including Algeria and Jordan.
The situation at Long Lartin, now nicknamed Longtanamo, will be raised in the House of Commons next month by several politicians including Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn and Respect MP George Galloway. (April 22)
Earlier this year, Conservative MP Julian Brazier put the Prime Minister on the spot when he welcomed the “winding down” of Guantanamo Bay in Cuba but asked him about the situation regarding British residents being held there.
Brown responded: “As far as Guantanamo Bay is concerned, I think the whole House shares the view that he has: that we would like Guantanamo Bay to be closed as soon as possible.” However his response has now drawn accusations of hypocrisy with further claims that Britain’s reputation as a leader of human rights was being destroyed as controversies over diplomatic assurances and recent admissions about CIA rendition flights unfold.
Leading the attack is human rights lawyer Gareth Pierce who represents a number of the Long Lartin detainees. She said: “It is shameful the way these men are being treated. They are being detained without charge based on evidence they can not challenge, evidence which has been extracted under torture overseas.”
Abu Qatada is a client of hers and of his case she added: “It is nonsense for the media to call him Al Qaida's spiritual leader in Europe. There is no evidence and, if he really is then charge him, let’s have a trial.”
“He’s never met Osama bin Ladin and despite being locked up all this time the police have never even questioned him on these issues, if there was a genuine belief you would have thought they would have at least done that.”
Ex-Guantanamo detainee turned best-selling author Moazzam Begg from Birmingham is raising public awareness about the case of the Long Lartin detainees through the international pressure group Cage Prisoners. He has carried out a series of exclusive interviews with some of the Long Lartin detainees which are being published on the charity's website from tomorrow.
He said: “Habeas corpus is a great British right but it has been removed for these people and the rule of law does not apply to them. They have not even been allowed to see the evidence that is being discussed in kangaroo-style courts, even their lawyers are not allowed to know the truth. "With the situation of Guantanamo Bay the British Government could hide behind plausible deniability but the reality is that there are those languishing in Long Lartin without charge and without trial.
“Essentially, the British Government is guilty of precisely the same thing as the Americans. Long Lartin represents a travesty of justice where innocent men are being held for no legal reason” Asim Qureshi, a senior researcher at the human rights organization Cage Prisoners, Â which was originally launched to highlight the plight of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay said: “The British Government is trying to deport these men to their countries of origin in the full knowledge that torture is routinely carried out.
“Even the Americans are refusing to send some detainees from Guantanamo to their countries of origin because they'll be tortured on return. The Americans recognise there are certain countries you can not send detainees to, so why is Britain? “This is against the European Court of Human Rights which has just re-established the principle you can not return people back to countries where torture is practised.”
Why does the British Government think it can continue to flout these laws? If any of these men were dangerous they would have been charged with crimes in the UK. But the fact they've kept them where they can not see evidence against them, or defend themselves, shows the government is trying to demonise them in order to perpetuate the War on Terror. "This government condemns Guantanamo but at the same time they are being very artistic with their own legislation.”
Jeremy Corbyn MP has previously taken up the plight of the Long Lartin detainees with both Prime Minister Tony Blair and more recently Gordon Brown said: “It is wholly wrong to keep people in prison indefinitely without charge or trial on spurious grounds while they are awaiting deportation under immigration law. It is offensive to natural justice. No one should be deported to a country that has not signed up to all the human rights laws that are acceptable in this country. I will raise the issue again at the beginning of April when the anti terror legislation comes before House. We are putting people at enormous risk,” he added, citing the case of two Algerians who were deported to Algeria from Long Lartin last year.
Despite an unofficial understanding between Tony Blair and the Algerian Prime
Minister that deportees human rights would be respected both men have since been imprisoned. Their cases have now been taken up by human rights groups who fear they are being subject to torture.
Meanwhile, the British Government hopes of deporting the Long Lartin detainees to their home countries suffered a serious setback earlier this month with the European court of human rights ruling against one such attempt.
The grand chamber of 17 judges at the Strasbourg court found unanimously that an attempt by Italy to send a man back to Tunisia violated the ban on torture or inhuman or degrading treatment in the European convention on human rights.
The case was brought by Nassim Saadi against the Italian government. The British government intervened in the hope the court would sanction the return of suspects regardless of their home country's human rights record.