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Today, 08 November 2009

› Malema’s life in danger

› Bok player ratings

› Hofmeyr addresses Joost

› Major airport work done

› Bok captain heading home

Yesterday, 07 November 2009

› Malema’s life in danger

› Leicester sting Bok Bs

› Eskom chair faces the axe

› Nedbank, ANCYL make up

› Hofmeyr addresses Joost

The last Britons held at the US jail for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba were flying home on Tuesday after a long ordeal that included almost two years of solitary confinement for some of them.

London police said the four were aboard a Royal Air Force plane accompanied by anti-terrorism police as well as a medical team and two independent observers, including a Muslim.

Events on the flight were also being video-taped, a police statement said.

The men's lawyers expected to see the four — Moazzam Begg, Richard Belmar, Martin Mubanga and Feroz Abbasi — at London's top security Paddington Green police station around 6pm (1800 GMT) on Tuesday.

Prisoners' return resolves stand-off

Although they could still be tried in Britain, the return of Begg, Belmar, Mubanga and Abbasi finally resolves a stand-off that saw the United States face rare public criticism from its closest ally in the Iraq war and its "war on terror".

After reportedly pushing strongly in private for the men to be freed, the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair handed Washington a stiff rebuke in June when US officials said some of the Britons might face military tribunals.

While Britain had to accept some tough measures in anti-terrorism, the tribunals proposed for Guantanamo detainees did not "offer sufficient guarantees of a fair trial in accordance with international standards", British Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith said.

Human rights lawyers Clive Stafford-Smith and Louise Christian told AFP on Tuesday they did not know when, or even if, the four would be freed after police questioned them under Britain's anti-terrorism laws.

However, last March, five other British men released from Guantanamo Bay were only briefly detained by police before being allowed to go free.

Lawyers object to questioning

Both lawyers said they objected even to the questioning, alleging that the detainees had been subjected to torture during their detention, which Stafford-Smith said included periods of solitary confinement for all four of them.

"They suffered horrendously," he said.

Stafford-Smith saw his two clients, Begg and Belmar, as well as Abbasi when he visited Guantanamo earlier this month before returning to Britain last week, a visit permitted because he is licensed to practice law in the United States.

"Given what they've been through, they've held up as well as can be expected but they're victims of torture and torture victims suffer from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)," he said.

Begg, Abbassi spent nearly two years in solitary confinement

Stafford-Smith and Christian said Begg and Abbassi had spent nearly two years each in solitary confinement, something psychologists say tends to make the effects of detention much worse because people cannot share their ordeal.

Christian, who has not been allowed to see her clients in Guantanamo, told AFP she was "apprehensive" about their health.

"Martin Mubanga has written letters alleging extremes of hot and cold, being deprived of basic sanitary items, such as toilet paper and toothpaste," she said.

Mubanga had also complained of having been "shackled to the ground for hours at a time and being forced to defecate or urinate on the floor," she said. "And Feroz Abassi has alleged religious and sexual humiliation."

Relief for families

Away from the high politics, Tuesday will bring huge relief to the detainees' families, who insist their relatives were mistakenly accused of terror links and should not have been held, let alone for so long.

Begg's father Azmat said he had mixed feelings. "When I think of his condition, I feel sad, when I think that I will see him, I feel happy," he told BBC radio.

Begg, Abbasi and Belmar were all arrested either in Afghanistan or Pakistan during 2001 and 2002, while Mubanga was picked up in Zambia, having been in Afghanistan previously.

All four have rejected US accusations that they are connected to Al-Qaeda or other extremist groups.

AFP