| http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=11679990&method=full&siteid=50143
BRITONS IN CAMP X-RAY TO BE SENT HOME By James Hardy, Political Editor FIVE British Muslims captured in Afghanistan are to be released from Camp X-Ray and flown home. America, which has been interrogating the men for two months, has admitted it has no evidence against them and they are unlikely to face any charges. The U-turn is a huge NE embarrassment for US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who boasted that Camp X-Ray in Cuba held only the "hardest of the hardcore" of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters. Human rights groups are certain to call for the immediate release of the five - Ruhal Ahmed, 20, Asif Iqbal, 20, and Shafiq Rasul, 24, all from Tipton in the West Midlands; Feroz Abbasi, 22, from Croydon, Surrey; and Jamal Udeen, 35, from Manchester. But a senior Whitehall source predicted it would be "another six or eight months" before they would arrive back in Britain. He said: "It is unlikely any of them will ever face trial in this country. There is no evidence against them. "It is hard to see how there was ever going to be and it is fair to say that point was made to the Americans at the start. "Our view was that ... it would have been better to hold them in Afghanistan under the control of the new interim administration. "They could have been treated as prisoners of war and processed in Afghanistan and, depending on their guilt or innocence, either sentenced there or released." Yesterday, lawyers for Feroz Abbasi launched proceedings at the High Court seeking a judicial review of Britain's co-operation with the US. The action could see the Government facing charges under the Human Rights Act of "aiding and abetting" the US in unlawfully detaining men at Camp X-Ray. |
