Ministers ask for British residents held at Guantanamo to be released

The families of five former British residents incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay for up to five years were celebrating after learning the men could finally be coming home within months.

The end of their ordeal was in sight after the Government formally requested the release of the five men, who had been living legally in the UK before they were picked up abroad by the American authorities.

All nine British nationals held in the notorious military base in Cuba were returned to this country by 2005, but Tony Blair had refused to intervene on behalf of another group of men legally resident in this country before their detention. Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, announced a change of heart and raised the subject in talks last week with President George Bush. He was encouraged by signs that the White House is moving towards closing the camp. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, and Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, have written to Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, to ask for the men's release.

The issue was also brought to a head by a High Court instruction to the Home Office to decide by tomorrow whether one of the men, Jamil El-Banna , would be allowed to return to live in the UK after his release.

The others are Shaker Aamer, Omar Deghayes, Binyam Mohamed and Abdennour Sameur. All are originally from the Middle East or north Africa and had been granted permission to stay in this country. All had vigorously denied any involvement with terrorism and some claimed they had been tortured.

Another UK resident, Iraqi-born Bisher al-Rawi, a business associate of Mr El-Banna, was released from Guantanamo this year. He had reportedly co-operated with the British security services before his arrest.

Mr El-Banna's 10-year-old son, Anas, who wrote to Mr Blair pleading for help in getting his father home, told the BBC: "All I have been told is that my dad is coming back."

He said the family had received a hand-delivered letter yesterday telling them the Government was seeking his father's release. He said: "When we opened it we were really happy."

Mr Aamer's father-in-law, Saeed Ahmed Siddique, said yesterday: "Today is a day of celebration. W are really, really delighted. We were always sure that he would be released because there are no charges against him. We knew what kind of person he was."

He added: "We are a big family and we have tried to look after his family but even with everybody here, his wife is without a husband, the children are without a father and they are feeling lonely.

"It has been very, very difficult for the family. My daughter has even been admitted to hospital with depression and mental health problems."

Abubaker Deghayes, Omar's brother, said: "When I heard, I was so happy, I was in tears. It's been a long, long terrible episode.

"Previous experience shows that when the British Government officially makes a request to the Americans they do manage to bring them back. I hope it's going to be a speedy process. The Americans had already offered them back to the Brits, so things are already in motion."

The Foreign Office said it welcomed recent steps by the White House to reduce the number of detainees in Guantanamo and its plans to close the base.

It said in a statement: "The Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary have reviewed the Government's approach to this group of individuals in light of these ongoing developments, our long-held policy aim of securing the closure of Guantanamo Bay, and the need to maintain national security." The US ambassador to London, Robert Tuttle, said the request to release the detainees would be considered very seriously.

"We will take the request to release them and study it very seriously and get back with all due, deliberate speed," he told BBC Radio 4's The World at One.

Tim Hancock, Amnesty International UK's campaigns director, said: "This is hugely welcome news for the men and their families after all these years of suffering and uncertainty ­ and the Government should now move quickly.

"We've been saying for several years that the UK should have been seeking the fair trial or safe release of the UK residents imprisoned at Guantanamo. Guantanamo is a travesty of justice and it's important that the Government starts speaking out about hundreds of men still held there ­ they must not become Guantanamo's forgotten prisoners."

James Welch, the legal director for the campaign group Liberty, said: " This change of policy is extremely welcome, especially if it signals a bigger change of approach on both sides of the Atlantic.

"Surely the US and UK governments need no further evidence that internment, kidnap and torture have been completely counterproductive in the struggle against terrorism."

Last night, the Government indicated that it was also preparing to " look again" at the cases of Iraqi translators who assisted the British military but were denied refugee status while Mr Blair was prime minister. They were subsequently left to the dangers of Iraq, just as Western troops are reportedly preparing to scale back from the country.

The detainees given hope

Shaker Aamer

Mr Aamer, 38, originally from Saudi Arabia, had lived in Britain since 1996 and worked as an interpreter for a solicitors' firm. He was reported to have travelled to Afghanistan to undertake charity work in August 2001. His lawyer suggested that he was picked up because the US was offering a bounty for each foreigner captured. Mr Aamer's wife and four children, who live in south London, are all British nationals. He had indefinite leave to stay in the United Kingdom and was applying for citizenship when he was picked up.

Binyam Mohamed

An Ethopian-born caretaker, 28, he sought asylum in 1994 and was given leave to remain. After converting to Islam, he travelled in Pakistan and Afghanistan in an attempt, he says, to beat his drug addiction and see Muslim countries with "his own eyes". He said he was forced to sign confessions he had been plotting a terror attack.

Jamil El-Banna

The 44-year-old Jordanian, who had been granted refuge in Britain, has a wife and five children. He was arrested in November 2002 during a visit to the Gambia. He was questioned about alleged links to the imprisoned radical Muslim cleric, Abu Qatada, but he insists he only met the cleric once in Britain.

Abdennour Sameur

Mr Sameur, 33, deserted from the Algerian army in 1999 and was granted asylum in Britain the next year. He settled in north-west London, where he worked as a painter and wallpaper hanger. But he travelled to Afghanistan because he said he found it difficult to live as a good Muslim in Britain. He was arrested on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and shot in the leg. Mr Sameur said a confession that he knew in advance about the 11 September attacks had been forced out of him by his US captors who threatened to not treat his leg wound.

Omar Deghayes

Libyan-born Mr Deghayes, 37, came to Brighton as a teenager after his father was allegedly killed by the Gaddafi regime. He dropped out of university and travelled to Afghanistan, where he married and had a son. He was arrested in Pakistan in 2001. But his lawyers said he was a victim of mistaken identity. They also claimed he had been virtually blinded in one eye at Guantanamo after military police sprayed pepper spray in his face and an officer poked him in the eye. He had been applying for citizenship, but missed an interview while abroad.