The British government's senior legal officer launched a public attack yesterday on proposals by the Bush administration to bring Guantanamo prisoners before military tribunals.
Attorney-general Peter Goldsmith referred to US President George W. Bush's plans as "unacceptable," echoing the sentiments of other senior lawyers in Britain.
Lord Goldsmith's remarks were released to the media ahead of an address to the International Criminal Law Association in Paris yesterday evening.
"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," Goldsmith was to say.
"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," Goldsmith said.
British observers said the remarks from Goldsmith, who advises the cabinet on legal matters, were in contrast to previous comments from government ministers, although Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has also said that the trials of Britons held there should take place in accordance with international legal standards.
In July of last year, Bush unveiled plans for a system of military commissions to try around 600 detainees at the Cuban base.
Two Britons were among those named on an initial list of six to face the tribunals.
Those at the US military base on Cuba were detained outside the US, a large number of them in Afghanistan.
The US administration holds that they are not subject to the jurisdiction of US courts, although this is being contested through the US courts.
In November of last year, a British law lord, Johan Steyn, referred to conditions of "utter lawlessness" at Guantanamo Bay, and other lawyers have said the detainees there had fallen into a "legal black hole."
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