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The family of Shafiq Rasul, the latest Briton to be confirmed as a prisoner in Cuba, expressed its bewilderment last night that the 24-year-old law student was being held at the Guantanamo Bay naval base with his friend Asif Iqbal, 20, who had lived only a few hundred yards away.

On the doorstep of the family's West Midlands home, Mr Rasul's two elder brothers insisted that he was not an al-Qa'ida supporter, and said they believed he could have been "brainwashed".

Murtza and Habib expressed the family's sense of alarm at learning that he was in the US camp. Habib said that far from supporting the 11 September atrocities, Mr Rasul had actually condemned the attacks when they watched them on television.

"We sat down and watched the news on 11 September together and he was in total condemnation of what happened. It was not only Americans there but people representing all the world.

"He was not radical in any way. He had nothing against Americans. He was very Westernised," Habib said.

He and Mr Rasul's eldest brother, Murtza, appeared baffled by the suggestion that he was an Islamic hardliner. They said he was moderate and that "he never even went to the mosque".

Murtza offered two possible explanations for his younger brother's presence in Afghanistan. "First, he could have been brainwashed and taken over there to fight. The second thing is he could have gone there to aid the women, the children and the sick," he said.

Habib said that the family knew Mr Iqbal to be a friend of Mr Rasul, who had gone to Pakistan to get married a few months ago.

The family solicitor, Parvez Akther, stood beside the brothers and made a statement about a visit to Pakistan by Mr Rasul three months ago, which, he said, was made for a Microsoft engineering course in Lahore. Mr Akther said Mr Rasul had continued to maintain regular contact with his family in Britain.

"The family had contact with Shafiq on a once-a-week basis and that was for about four to five weeks. The family then went through a very difficult time with a nephew who was very ill. Tragically he died on 24 December. The family then contacted Shafiq in Pakistan through their relatives and informed him of the nephew's death and they asked Shafiq to come back to England. The family heard nothing after that.

"Last Monday the family was contacted by the Foreign Office and informed that Shafiq was being held in Cuba, and other than that the family know nothing more," Mr Akther said.

The family remained concerned about the conditions Mr Rasul was being held in, despite Foreign Office reassurance. Habib said: "We really don't know that he is in good health. We haven't seen any pictures of him. Foreign Office officials had been unable to say anything about events leading up to his capture. All we know is he was in Afghanistan and he was arrested in Afghanistan. We don't know whether he was fighting or aiding people or taken over there at gunpoint."

A third man, Feroz Abbasi, 22, from Croydon, south London, was named last week as an inmate at the camp. The American authorities have told British MPs that the men being held in Cuba could all face the death penalty for allegedly fighting with the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, al-Qa'ida.

Neighbours, friends and family dismissed suggestions that the pair from Tipton were among those described by Donald Rumsfeld, the United States Defence Secretary, as the "hardest of the hard-core'' al-Qa'ida members. They were said to be football fanatics who played regularly for a local team and supported Manchester United and Liverpool.

Both were said to enjoy amusement arcades and computers. Mr Rasul, who has had a white girlfriend, was described as outgoing by acquaintances.

Adrian Bailey, the Labour MP for West Bromwich West, whose constituency includes Tipton, visited Mr Rasul's relatives yesterday. He said their reaction was one of "astonishment and bewilderment".

He said the Tipton community was well integrated, with Muslim children going to a Catholic primary school.

"They stressed to me that they are moderate Muslims and part of the long-established community here," Mr Bailey said. "The views of al-Qa'ida are not theirs.'

Mohammed Chowdhry, 73, a family friend, said Mr Rasul, his mother, Jamila, and another brother who was getting married travelled up to six months ago to the village in Pakistan from which the family came.

Mr Chowdhry said Mr Rasul did not return.