Jeremy Lovell, Reuters  --  Arab News

LONDON, 27 June 2004 — British Prime Minister Tony Blair has asked US President George W. Bush for the return of four Britons still held in the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, a lawyer acting for one of the detainees said yesterday.

“It has emerged from the government papers that have been filed in the court that within the last month Tony Blair has made a personal plea to George Bush,” Louise Christian, a lawyer representing detainee Feroz Abbasi, told Sky News.

“The families will be enormously heartened... and will very much be hoping that this will result in the four remaining British citizens being brought back very soon,” she added.

The court papers form part of the British government’s defense against a legal action brought by lawyers for two of the British detainees seeking a court order forcing Britain to formally demand their return.

Abbasi, Martin Mubanga, Richard Belmar and Moazzam Begg are among some 600 people held without charge by the United States at the US base in Cuba since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

A spokesman for Blair’s office at 10 Downing Street refused to comment on whether or not the prime minister had made a direct appeal to Bush.

“The position is now as it has been for some time. We are involved in discussions with the Americans. These discussions take place at different levels,” he told Reuters.

“But we are just not going to get into the details at the moment. Obviously we are working hard to resolve the situation of the four British detainees,” he added.

Washington says the four pose a security threat, but has so far not provided proof or allowed their lawyers to see them.

“What are those security concerns? Are they legitimate, given that they have already served the equivalent of a five-year prison sentence?” Christian asked.

Five other Britons were released from Guantanamo in March and freed within a day by British police without any charges.

Christian said some of the released detainees have complained that they had been tortured — a claim vehemently rejected by Washington.

“What has emerged about prisoner abuse and what I have to call torture from both the returning British detainees and from documents and other sources... is very disturbing and that places a very high duty on the British prime minister to bring these people back and get them out of danger,” she said.

Britain, which has repeatedly expressed concerns about the Guantanamo detentions and Washington’s plans to try the men in military tribunals, took off the diplomatic gloves on Friday.

Attorney-General Lord Goldsmith, Britain’s top legal officer, said the tribunals were “unacceptable.”

“While we must be flexible and be prepared to countenance some limitation of fundamental rights if properly justified and proportionate, there are certain principles on which there can be no compromise,” he said in a speech in Paris.