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Three British residents held at Guantanamo Bay arrived in Britain yesterday after more than four years in captivity. Two were promptly arrested, police said.
Jordanian Jamil el-Banna, 45, Libyan Omar Deghayes, 37, and Algerian Abdennour Sameur, 33, were accompanied by a doctor and under escort by counter-terrorism police, their lawyers said.
Deghayes and Sameur were arrested shortly before landing, under Britain's Terrorism Act, on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.
The two were originally seized in Pakistan following the US invasion of Afghanistan, although specifics of exactly why and when they were detained are not clear.
Banna was arrested at an airport in The Gambia, West Africa, in November 2002. He was detained on arrival in Britain but was not arrested.
Their release follows years of campaigning by their families, followed by pressure by the British Government over the past four months to convince the US Administration there were no grounds to hold them.
"I congratulate the [Gordon] Brown Government on securing our prisoners' release," said Clive Stafford Smith, the legal director of Reprieve, a legal charity defending them.
Lawyers for Deghayes say he was blinded in one eye as a result of being beaten while in US custody. US authorities have not commented on his condition.
Smith had said he expected the three men to be held briefly for questioning by British police before being released to their families.
"The abuse they have suffered, and almost six years' detention without trial, is enough," he said.
While the US has described the men as dangerous, the British Government had declined to say what security or surveillance measures it may impose on them after their return.
Britain's Home Office said the three men would not necessarily be allowed to remain in the country.
- REUTERS
