Corin Redgrave: Britain has its own Guantanamo, called Belmarsh Prison

From a speech given by the actor at a Guantanamo Bay protest in Birmingham

Why won't the British Government demand the release of Moazzam Begg, Feroz Abbasi and all the other British citizens - and British residents - in Guantanamo? Because they could not be tried in a British court, or for that matter in any internationally approved jurisdiction. No evidence brought against them would be admissible. No act alleged against them would constitute a crime in British law, unless - which can hardly be the case - they were accused of genocide or crimes against humanity.

For London to say so, loudly and clearly, would certainly embarrass Washington, and so it should.Of course, one does not expect the British Government to send the SAS to Guantanamo to release Moazzam Begg and the others. It would make good TV, and might improve the Government's ratings, but it isn't necessary. They only need use the diplomatic legal and commercial weapons available to ensure that America releases these men.

Instead, the weapon they have chosen is Lord Goldsmith and, to paraphrase the Iron Duke, I don't know what he does to the Americans but he certainly doesn't frighten them.

And so, since our Government has fallen so far short of what it ought to do, we must ask why. I don't believe in the "Blair is Bush's poodle" theory. I'm afraid it is because Britain has its own Guantanamo and it is called Her Majesty's Prison Belmarsh, where 13 men are locked indefinitely in single cells with severely restricted access to lawyers and families, under the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001.

We must build the campaign, to save these men and return them to their families and friends. We must raise money for their defence, and to bring their captors to trial under international law. We must have protests and pickets outside American consulates and its embassy. We will have a great deal of goodwill for this campaign because public opinion across the political spectrum is outraged at the injustice.