BRITAIN: Five Britons held by the US authorities without charge or trial at Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay for two years were back on British soil last night.
Four of the men were arrested under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act on board the FC-17 aircraft which flew them from Cuba shortly after it landed at RAF Northolt close to 7 p.m. and immediately taken for questioning to the high-security Paddington Green police station in London.
Increasing expectations that he would be the first to be released, the fifth man - Mr Jamal al-Harith, also known as Jamal Udeen from Manchester - was held at the airbase having been detained for questioning under port and border controls contained within the Terrorism Act, 2000. Police said he would have access to his lawyer, who had arrived at the base shortly before the aircraft touched down.
British civil liberties campaigners were celebrating the return and expected release of all five as a symbolic blow against the American regime at Guantanamo. The British Home Secretary, Mr David Blunkett, has already declared that those returning home would pose no threat to the safety or security of the United Kingdom.
However, there was renewed alarm and sharpened political debate last night about the fate of the four Britons left behind, following Mr Blunkett's indication that they would probably face trial in the United States because they had been picked up "in the combat zone" in Afghanistan.
At the same time it emerged that Britain's most senior judge will decide next Wednesday whether Mr Blunkett must abide by the Special Immigration Panel decision to release a 36-year-old Libyan interned under Britain's own anti-terrorism laws.
Solicitors for Mr Ruhal Ahmed (22), Mr Asif Iqbal (20) and Mr Shafiq Rasul (24), all from Tipton in the West Midlands, and Mr Tarek Dergoul (24), of East London, were waiting to see their clients at Paddington Green, where the first order of police business was to process them and have them examined by a forensic medical examiner to ensure they were fit to be detained and questioned.
Scotland Yard said that, as was normal practice, each man would be allowed to make a telephone call and to have access to the solicitor of his choice. The men would be questioned by officers from the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch, some of whom had travelled with them on the flight from Guantanamo Bay along with two independent observers, one from the Muslim community.
Police were able to hold the men for an initial nine hours while verifying their details, although suspects can be held for up to 14 days under the Terrorism Act.
The local MP for the so-called "Tipton Three", Mr Adrian Bailey, of Labour, said that, while he was glad to see their "legal limbo" ended, it was right for the police to question the men upon their return to Britain.
The return of the five came after more than a year of delicate negotiations between the British and American authorities. However, Fair Trials Abroad last night said Mr Blunkett's comments about the remaining four Britons at Camp Delta signalled an end to British opposition to the "kangaroo courts" proposed by the US.
Speaking in the US, Mr Blunkett said in respect of Feroz Abbasi, Richard Belmar, Martin Mubanga and Moazzam Begg: "The evidence that has been picked up is best used in the US, not in Britain, because the people who evaluated that evidence are of course those who were present and have been involved with the interrogation process."