Blair faces Camp X-Ray action
The British government was today facing legal action for allegedly failing to press the US to respect the human rights of the Camp X-Ray prisoners.
Lawyers acting for Feroz Abbasi, one of five British citizens held at Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay, said they would apply for a judicial review if there were no developments by close of business tonight.
United Nations guidelines implicate Britain in the use of controversial conditions at the base, solicitor Louise Christian said.
The regulation says a state can be held responsible for the unlawful act of another state if it ‘‘knowingly aids in the commission’’ of an unlawful act.
‘‘The UK government can be held liable for aiding and abetting the US on the basis of the interrogation by MI6 agents, whose information could have been passed to the US authorities,’’ said Ms Christian.
An application for judicial review could be taken in the High Court under Article 16 of the International Law Commission of the United Nations’ Draft Articles of State Responsibility.
Ms Christian, who has met Foreign Office Minister Baroness Amos, wrote to the Blair government to warn them of her plans last Friday.
‘‘We do not think they are doing enough. All the government would say is that they were not prepared to respond to our legal argument.’’
The legal profession yesterday expressed concern at claims that Foreign Office officials had advised Abbasi’s mother, Zumrati Juma, not to consult lawyers about her son’s case.
In her first major public statement, Ms Juma, a nurse from Croydon, south London, called on Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair to persuade the US government to hand her 22-year-old son to British authorities.
‘‘I’m frightened he is being treated badly, and being kept in a cage without any exercise. I don’t believe Feroz is being given freedom to talk about the conditions he is being kept in, or his health.’’
Ms Juma said Foreign Office officials told her on January 25 not to consult lawyers until her son had been charged with an offence.
Ms Christian said this guidance had led to a three-week delay before Ms Juma sought advice, by which time Abbasi had been at Camp X-Ray for a month.
President of the Law Society in Britain David McIntosh said: ‘‘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.’’
A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘‘We did not and would not give legal advice.’’
He added: ‘‘We have asked the US to clarify the legal procedures under which the detainees might be prosecuted and we have passed on requests from the families for access by lawyers to the US.’’
College drop-out Abbasi was captured by US troops in December after allegedly helping defend the last Taliban stronghold of Kanduz.
The US has described the detainees as ‘‘unlawful combatants’’ rather than prisoners of war, and has yet to finalise the charges they will face.
