TOKYO, 19 July 2003 — The United States has agreed to suspend legal proceedings against British terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay until US and British officials have discussed their cases, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s official spokesman said yesterday.
The spokesman, briefing reporters accompanying Blair on a flight from Washington to Tokyo, said the White House was due to make a formal statement on the issue later yesterday.
“There will be no further legal proceedings against the individuals concerned, pending discussions next week involving high-level legal teams in the US led on the UK side by the attorney general when all aspects of the cases of the nine individuals concerned will be discussed,” the spokesman said on condition of anonymity.
Maj. John Smith, a spokesman for the Pentagon office preparing for the military trials of terrorism suspects, said the office had not been notified yesterday morning about any change in plans for the Britons.
Nine Britons are being held at Guantanamo Bay — two of whom are on an initial list of six detainees who could be tried by the military tribunal.
US officials say the six were, like other prisoners at the US Naval base in Cuba, suspected of involvement with Al-Qaeda, Afghanistan’s Taleban or some other group. The next step is for a prosecutor to draft charges against the men.
President Bush said Thursday at a joint news conference with Blair in Washington that the two leaders would discuss the fate of the two British citizens on the initial list.
Blair, who is under pressure from British lawmakers to win concessions from Bush on the military tribunal issue, arrived in Tokyo yesterday for the first leg of a tour of Far East Asia.
The British government has said it would be unacceptable for Moazzam Begg, 35, and Feroz Abbasi, 23, to be denied a fair trial, and has said it has “strong reservations” about such a military tribunal.
Britain is opposed to the death penalty and the Blair government said it would raise the strongest possible objections to any chance of capital punishment being applied.
“Obviously it’s a relief if they are not going to have to face trial in front of these completely unfair military commissions,” Abbasi’s lawyer, Louise Christian, told Sky News TV.
