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Britons made false confessions { August 5 2004 }

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   http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,1276459,00.html

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,1276459,00.html

Families call for immediate freeing of Britons caught in 'Kafka nightmare'

Tania Branigan and David Teather in New York
Thursday August 5, 2004
The Guardian

The families and lawyers of four Britons still held in Guantánamo Bay demanded their immediate release yesterday as allegations of sustained abuse at the camp raised fresh fears for their mental and physical health.

Relatives of the detainees said they were frightened that the men, two of whom may have to face military trials, had made false confessions because of the way US forces had treated them.

"We have serious concerns about mental illness," said Sadiq Khan, whose law firm Christian Khan represents two Britons. "The only people these men are going to harm is themselves. The remaining Britons must be brought home as soon as possible."

The dossier compiled from accounts by the "Tipton three", who were released in March, suggests that mental health of the two potential defendants is deteriorating.

It outlines the gruelling conditions at the detention camp in Cuba and alleges that abuse and humiliation were commonplace there as well as at US custody centres in Afghanistan.

"If a person is not in the right frame of mind they will accept anything put to them, and those who have come out have said my son is in bad shape," said Moazzam Begg's father Azmat.

"I don't think they want to bring him in front of anybody because then [people] could see what happened to him and what they had done.

"He has been in solitary confinement for the last 2 years. There are cases of people giving false confessions after less than a month [in isolation]. He should be released immediately."

Moazzam Begg, from Birmingham, and Feroz Abbasi, from Croydon, south London, have been named as potential defendants at military tribunals. Yesterday's report said that Mr Abbasi was "getting a very hard time" and that Mr Begg was "in a very bad way".

The detainees have now been told that they have a right to appoint lawyers - following the US supreme court's ruling that US courts have jurisdiction over the base - but so far have had no access to legal representatives.

Sadiq Khan, whose firm acts for Mr Abbasi and another Briton, Martin Mubanga, said there was "no doubt" that it was impossible for them to receive a fair trial.

Janette Belmar, whose brother Richard is also held at the camp, said she believed he had probably made a false confession, as the three men from Tipton did. Shafiq Rasul, Rhuhel Ahmed and Asif Iqbal admitted meeting Osama bin Laden and one of the September 11 hijackers, despite being in the UK at the time.

Ms Belmar added: "All of the people who have been released, like the French, have said they have been abused. How can the Americans dismiss it when they're all saying the same thing?"

The president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which released the dossier in New York yesterday, said inmates faced a "Kafkaesque nightmare".

"Everywhere you turn there is more coercion, more people saying we know you are guilty. They assumed every single person there was guilty."

The CCR has handed the report to John Warner, the head of the senate armed services committee leading the investigation into the abuses at Abu Ghraib. Human rights groups have called for the committee to carry out a full inquiry into the treatment of prisoners held by the US in the "war on terror".

Mr Ratner, who said the document made "chilling reading", added: "We want all these practices stopped. We want attorneys down there and doctors down there.

"This report calls into question the reliability of any bit of information or confession obtained from any detainee. Every bit of information has been acquired using unlawful coercive techniques. You can't trust the information coming out of Guantánamo."

He said they led to "false leads, false confessions and going after the wrong people".

In a statement on the British role in interrogations at Guantánamo Bay, the Foreign Office said that it would have been "wholly irresponsible" not to question them.




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