What is the EU doing to secure a fair trial for European Guantanamo detainees?

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 15th Sep 2004

Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, London MEP and European Justice spokeswoman for the Liberal Democrats continues to probe the EU about its actions to secure a fair trial or repatriation for European citizens detained, abused or even tortured at Guantanamo Bay and other camps worldwide administered by the US.

Baroness Ludford's challenged the EU in an oral question today in the European Parliament to the EU Council President, the Dutch Foreign Minister.

She said: "The British Foreign Office ought to be leading a coordinated EU pressure campaign since over half the European detainees are British. Unfortunately their hand and their will is weakened by UK detention without charge of a dozen people in breach of European human rights norms."

"The EU is not doing enough to hold the United States to account for these severe, systematic breaches of the Geneva Conventions and their own constitution. Evidence of 'ghost detainees' at Guantanamo now adds the charge of secret detention to that of detention without trial. These are illegal and wholly reprehensible actions from a country that heralds itself as the global champion of democracy and human rights."

"While in last year's Foreign Office annual report on human rights, the Foreign Secretary stated that "we have serious reservations about the use of military commissions to try detainees held at Guantanamo Bay", the British Government has shamefully still not demanded the immediate repatriation of the remaining four British citizens and the three British residents."

Baroness Ludford's questioning supports a cross-party petition at Westminster of which Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary Mark Oaten MP is a co-sponsor. This petition has been submitted to a US Federal Court which is considering the legitimacy of the military tribunals and deciding whether inmates at Guantanamo are being held legally.

With dozens of suspected terrorists at Belmarsh prison being detained without trial and insufficient evidence to prosecute, the UK itself is guilty of a flagrant disregard for the rule of law. The situation at Belmarsh has been described by Amnesty International as "a Guantanamo in our own back yard."

"There are some who believe that for as long as detainees are considered to be a threat to society it is acceptable for their human rights and the rule of law to be denied. But the 'fight against terrorism' cannot be waged at the expense of established, basic, shared democratic values."

Notes:

1. Around 20 of the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay are citizens of an EU member state.

2. The remaining four British citizens being held in Guantanamo Bay are Moazzam Begg, Feroz Abbasi, Richard Belmar and Martin Mubanga. The remaining three British residents are Jamil Al Banna, Bisher Al Rawi and Jamal Abdullah.

3. Three of the four British citizens are from London, the constituency represented by Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP.

4. Question to EU: Can the Council please give details of what it has done to seek a fair trial or repatriation for European citizens and European residents imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, Bagram, Abu Ghraib, Diego Garcia and other camps administered by the United States authorities, and to what effect?