Minister Blasts U.S. over Guantanamo Trials

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The Government’s senior law officer has labelled US President George Bush’s proposals for military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay as “unacceptable”. The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith QC, is set to tell the International Criminal Law Association that he considers the US arrangements contrary to the principles of fair trial. He will insist at a conference in Paris tonight that there were “certain principles on which there can be no compromise”.

Last July, President Bush unveiled plans for a system of military commissions to try 600 detainees at the Cuban base. Two of the four British nationals still held at Camp Delta, Feroz Abbasi from Croydon, south London, and Moazzam Begg, from Birmingham, were among the President’s initial list of six to be tried under the controversial set-up.

Five other Britons who spent up to two years in US custody at the base were handed over to British custody in March, and were quickly freed without charge. Lord Goldsmith will say: “While we must be flexible and be prepared to countenance some limitation of fundamental rights if properly justified and proportionate, there are certain principles on which there can be no compromise.

“Fair trial is one of those – which is the reason we in the UK have been unable to accept that the US military tribunals proposed for those detained at Guantanamo Bay offer sufficient guarantees of a fair trial in accordance with international standards.”His comments contrasted with earlier British diplomacy on the subject. Lord Goldsmith and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw have insisted the Americans should either try the detainees in accordance with international standards or return them to the UK.

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