His psychiatrists have formally urged the Home Office to release him because his continued detention is severely damaging his mental health, said his lawyer, Gareth Peirce.Confessions and information extracted from several of the British detainees at Camp Delta are believed to have played a role in the arrests of many of the Belmarsh and Woodhill detainees. Neither confession will be admissible in a British court since they were allegedly secured using torture, by a foreign government and without any defence lawyer present. Azmat Begg, Mr Begg’s father, said his son’s last letter suggested he had lost some fingernails.Their future is also complicated by suspected links to the controversial detention of 14 alleged foreign terrorists in four British prisons without charge or trial, including Belmarsh, south London, and Woodhill, near Milton Keynes.The detainees include al-Qa’ida’s alleged “spiritual leader” in Europe, Abu Qatada, and Abu Rideh, a Palestinian man who is now in Broadmoor secure hospital after suffering a major breakdown. Mr Abbasi, a convert to Islam, was found in Afghanistan and arrested as an “unlawful combatant” in January 2002. In that case, however, the New Mexico attorney general swiftly intervened, saying the practice violated state law and ordering it to stop.But there were signs San Francisco’s lead could be followed by other major cities. The IoS revealed in December that Mr Begg had apparently confessed to helping a bizarre al-Qa’ida plot to release anthrax over the Houses of Parliament from an unmanned drone aircraft.Mr Begg, who was already under suspicion by Special Branch in the UK, was arrested in Pakistan in February 2002 for alleged links to al-Qa’ida. High-level talks over the fate of four Britons still being held without trial in Guantanamo Bay are deadlocked after ministers refused to accept fresh concessions by the Pentagon, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.
Britain and the US agreed a partial deal last week to release five British men who have been detained at Camp Delta, in Cuba, after months of increasingly intense legal wrangling between Lord Goldsmith QC, the Attorney General, and the US Department of Defence.The five, including the three so-called “Tipton Taliban” and a website designer, Jamal al-Harith, 35, are expected to be repatriated within the next few weeks.

His proposals provoked uproar from MPs and civil liberties’ groups, but Ms Christian said she suspects Mr Blunkett has Mr Begg and Mr Abbasi uppermost in his mind.Both men were amongst the first six of the 660 detainees at Camp Delta to be “designated” as suitable, in June last year, for a military trial. Lord Goldsmith rejected concessions last month from the Pentagon as insufficient. Ministers believe they should have been included in the release deal announced by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, last week.There is now growing evidence that the Government is hardening its position on the illegality of the military commissions. Mr Mubanga was arrested in Zambia and handed over to the CIA, but little has emerged about their alleged crimes. They face prosecution before US military courts after confessing to helping al-Qa’ida.

But they are at the centre of a protracted dispute between the US and UK governments over their legal rights, as well as internal rows within the Cabinet.The status of the other two, Richard Belmar, 23, and Martin Mubanga, 29, is even more confused. Their lawyers believe at least two of the men, Moazzam Begg, 36, and Feroz Abbasi, 23, will be held for up to another year. They will be interrogated by anti-terrorism police but are widely expected to be released without charge.The deal has left four Britons in limbo after discussions about their treatment and release broke down earlier this month. President Bush has described the notion of gay marriage as “very troubling”, and may soon urge an amendment of the US constitution to outlaw it.. For that reason, Democratic candidates are treating the issue with extreme care.