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Britain To Oppose Death Penalty For British Prisoners
LONDON, Jan. 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Britain said Tuesday that it would oppose any death penalty ruling against the three Britons held among alleged Al-Qaeda fighters by U.S. military authorities in Guantanamo, Cuba, news agencies reported Tuesday, January 22, 2002.
Foreign Office Minister, Ben Bradshaw, said it was up to the United States to decide what court should try the men at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base, now numbering 158, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
However, Bradshaw said the UK would make clear its opposition to the death penalty if America wanted to use it to punish British Al-Qaeda suspects, BBC’s online news service reported.
He added that London would complain to the U.S. government if any of the Britons were charged with allegations that could lead to the death penalty.
"The British government regularly, in cases where the death penalty may be imposed on British citizens, makes our views on the death penalty very plain to the American authorities," Bradshaw said.
"We are opposed to the death penalty."
Asked where the men should be tried, he told BBC radio: "We don't yet know what charges will be brought against these people, so it is too soon to give a definitive answer as to where and in what sort of court they should be tried.”
"The basic principle is that, going back to September 11, everybody agrees that the major crime was committed in the United States, and the major victims of that crime were thousands of innocent American citizens,” he continued.
"The U.S. has every right under international law to try those responsible in its own courts."
On September 11, hijackers, whom the U.S. claims were members of Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network, sent three planes ploughing into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington.
A fourth crashed in rural Pennsylvania.
So far, the U.S. has refused to make any evidence against Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda public.
Despite widespread criticism of the conditions in which the detainees are being held, London has backed up U.S. assertions that they are being treated in line with international humanitarian norms.
But EU external affairs commissioner, Chris Patten, warned the Americans not to lose the moral high ground.
"We have, with the U.S. taking such a dominant role, won so far the campaign. What is terribly important is that we do not now lose the peace," he said, AFP reported.
"I think it is inconceivable you could see the death penalty being applied by military tribunal. That would be a way of losing international support, and losing the moral high ground that the international coalition has."
The treatment of Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters detained by U.S. forces in Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba has drawn worldwide condemnation.
The U.S. has faced fierce international criticism for its treatment of the prisoners, who are manacled and held in small cells open to the elements.
The first legal challenges to the detention of 100 of the captives will be heard by a court in Los Angeles today.
The petition says the prisoners are being held at the U.S. naval base in violation of the Geneva Convention and the U.S. constitution.
Pictures of shackled and blindfolded detainees, described by the U.S. as unlawful combatants rather than prisoners of war, have led to accusations that the U.S. is flouting international law.
Human Rights Watch described the 1.8m by 2.4m open-sided wire cells in which the men are being kept as “a scandal”.
The detainees have been handcuffed, blindfolded, masked and drugged on board planes carrying them from Afghanistan the Cuba base. Such inhumane conditions have raised worldwide concerns and question marks about “the moral high ground” of the U.S.
However, UK officials who have seen the three Britons imprisoned at the camp have said they had "no complaints" about their treatment.
The Foreign Office has named one of the Britons as Feroz Abbasi, 22, from
Croydon, but has not released the identities of the other two, BBC reported.
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