The first prisoners were flown to Guantanamo Bay a year ago, blindfolded, handcuffed, their ankles shackled and wearing ear-muffs.

WASHINGTON, January 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Amnesty International called on the United States Friday, January 10, to resolve the "legal limbo" of hundreds of prisoners detained at its Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, base, slamming Washington's continuing defiance of international law, reported a British newspaper Saturday, January 11.

Amnesty accused the Bush administration of violating human rights afforded by the Geneva conventions by refusing to allow 600 prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay access to lawyers, courts or relatives, the Independent wrote.

A year after the Pentagon first began transferring Al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects to the U.S. naval base on the south-east tip of Cuba, human rights campaigners and lawyers have accused the administration of creating an unprecedented legal black hole, added the paper.

"No access to the courts, lawyers or relatives; the prospect of indefinite detention in small cells for up to 24 hours a day; the possibility of trials by executive military commissions with the power to hand down death sentences; and no right of appeal,'' the Independent quoted an Amnesty satement as saying.

''Is this how the USA defends human rights and the rule of law? This legal limbo is a continuing violation of human rights standards which the international community must not ignore," said the statement.

Many governments and rights group including the United Nations have spoken out against the treatment of the Guantanamo detainees, who Bush has said are not prisoners of war and thus cannot benefit from rights entitled them under the Geneva Convention.

The detainees are being held indefinitely under the legally-nebulous term "enemy combatants".

Despite fears that the men were not being granted the rights afforded to them by international agreements, the Bush administration refused to recognize them as prisoners of war and instead described them as "enemy combatants".

Amnesty renewed a reminder that the Geneva Convention required Washington to release to their home countries all those who were detained as combatants during armed conflict with a U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan.

The first prisoners were flown to Guantanamo Bay a year ago, blindfolded, handcuffed, their ankles shackled and wearing ear-muffs.

At the time, Rear-Admiral John Stufflebeem of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said of the men held in the temporary prison called Camp X-Ray: "They are bad guys. They are the worst of the worst and if let out on the street, they will go back to the proclivity of trying to kill Americans and others."

But after being interrogated by the CIA and FBI, none of the men have been charged with any crime. Three Afghan prisoners – including two elderly and frail men – were returned home after the U.S. decided they were "no longer a threat".

Campaigners complain that the fate of the prisoners does not appear to be an issue.

Thomas Wilner, a Washington-based lawyer who represents 12 Kuwaiti prisoners, said: "These are violations of basic human rights and something that Americans should care about. But the public responds with fear and deference to the government in times of crisis."

The British government, meanwhile, was also criticized for failing to protect the rights of the eight Britons among the prisoners.

British officials – including members of the security services – have made several visits to the eight Britons held at Guantanamo Bay. They said they are satisfied with the conditions in which the prisoners are being held.

On Friday, a U.K. Foreign Office spokesman said the government continued to "press the U.S. about the future of the Britons" and had urged it to come to a decision about their future.

U.K. Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, has made clear he believes the prisoners should be returned to Britain, though the decision on whether to charge them would be taken by the Crown Prosecution Service.

In November, three Court of Appeal judges described the detention of the Britons as "objectionable" but ruled that the Foreign Office could not be forced to do more.

Neil Durkin, a spokesman for Amnesty, said the Government was tacitly supporting the violation of human rights. "We don't think the U.K. Government has done enough," he said.