No cuffs or shackles for returned British Guantanamo detainees

A police vehicle thought to contain British Guantanamo detainees arrives at Paddington Green police station in central London. Picture / Reuters

There were no cuffs or shackles and the colour-coded jumpsuits they had worn for the last 36 months were replaced with civilian clothing.

The welcoming committee consisted of uniformed Metropolitan police officers and Anti-Terrorist Branch detectives rather than liveried air stewards. But compared to the 22-hour flights that took them to Guantanamo Bay up to three years ago - chained to a cargo plane floor while wearing blacked-out goggles and thick rubber gloves - the journey home yesterday for the four Britons freed from Camp Delta at least allowed them basic dignity.

As a Royal Air Force cargo plane prepared to return to Britain from Cuba shortly before yesterday, the men were shown to seats which Scotland Yard, apparently fearful of being accused of cosseting the prisoners, insisted offered only a "basic level of comfort".

Beneath this statement lay a chain of concern stretching from Guantanamo back to Whitehall that the detainees - for so long an advert for the degrading side of America's war on terror - be seen to be treated with an austere humanity on their flight into RAF Northolt and, ultimately, London's high security Paddington Green police station.

It is understood that handcuffs used to restrain the men when they were handed over by the American military authorities were removed by the British officers.

The men were offered halal food on board and allowed to pray while two independent observers, one a representative of the Muslim community, accompanied them on their journey.

A Yard spokesman said: "Advice has been taken from a wide range of people about the necessary arrangements to ensure that the religious and cultural needs of the men who are on board."

The contrast with the men's previous journey to Camp Delta and its cinder block buildings is likely to have been extreme.

The four Britons left behind them an estimated 500 prisoners who remain at the Cuban facility, including at least five people who are long-term residents in Britain.

While there, any movement would have been conducted while wearing a steel belt linked to leg shackles and handcuffs.

Shafiq Rasul, one of the previous five Britons freed from Guantanamo Bay last year, alleged that during his transfer from Afghanistan prisoners were shackled to the aircraft while wearing earmuffs, goggles and surgical masks. He claimed none of the detainees were allowed to use the toilet.

Mr Rasul, 27, from Tipton in the West Midlands, said: "Basically people wet their pants. You were pissing all over your legs. The only thing that relieved the sensory deprivation and occupied me for the 22-hour flight was that I was in serious pain. The belt was digging into me - when I finally got to Cuba I was bleeding. I lost feeling in my hands for the next six months."

When the RAF C-17 Globemaster plane touched down in west London, it did so with a detachment of military police on board as well as the Yard's anti-terrorism detectives and uniformed officers.

But while the level of security seemed over-zealous, there was also a medical team to tend to the four Britons if they fell ill.

To underline the point that no favours were being asked or given, two video cameras recorded the entire seven-hour flight across the Atlantic.

Among the footage captured by the cameras would have been the sight of a senior Anti Terrorist Branch officers arresting all four men on suspicion of being involved in the commission or preparation of a terrorist attack just as the plane came to a rest on the asphalt at RAF Northolt, better known as the VIP airport for Cabinet ministers and the Royal Family.

A police van was then reversed up a ramp into the rear hatch of the C-17 where the detainees boarded the vehicle and were driven in a convoy to Paddington Green in west London.

The careful choreography, apparently as much about fulfilling the British government's assurances to Washington that the men would pose no security risk to the United States as observing procedure, continued at the high security police station.

The men were examined by a police doctor to ensure they were fit to be detained and questioned before being allowed to make a phone call and speak, for the first time, to their British lawyers.

Compared to the chain link cages with concrete floors and dimensions of just 6ft by 8ft where the men began their incarceration in Guantanamo Bay, the heated cells once occupied by IRA suspects are likely to have seemed the height of luxury.

But for the four men it remained just another form of incarceration, albeit one that came with a reunion that must have once had seemed implausible.

Scotland Yard last night outlined one other small but crucial concession to differentiate London from American-controlled Cuba.

A spokesman added: "Due to the unique circumstances of this case each men will be allowed a visit by a family member."

- THE INDEPENDENT