Father appeals for US to return son held in Camp Delta

The father of one of the British detainees at Guantanamo Bay broke down yesterday when making an emotional appeal for his son to be returned home for trial.

Azmet Begg, whose son Moazzam, 35, has been held at Camp Delta since February, told the Liberal Democrat conference: "I just want my son back. I do not say set him free, what I say is let him come back to this country he belongs to, where he was born, where he was brought up. Keep him there behind bars, let him feel that he is back."

A tearful Mr Begg told delegates that his son had been "treated like an animal in a zoo" since he was captured by American forces in Pakistan in February 2002.

He said: "I don't understand under what law, under what human rights he has been kept there. If he is fit, then justice should be done to him. If he is guilty, he should be punished.

"If he isn't found guilty he should not be there for a second. Why is this not happening? What is wrong with our laws?"

He spoke as delegates unanimously backed a motion condemning treatment of the detainees in Cuba and calling on the Government to ensure that the nine Britons being held without trial were returned to the UK to face the courts. They passed an emergency motion reiterating calls for a full judicial inquiry into events during the run-up to the war in Iraq. Party leaders also demanded that the Government publish the full legal advice submitted in the weeks before military action was authorised.

Mr Begg said that his son had travelled to Afghanistan with his wife and three children to set up a school. But when the American-led forces started their bombardment, the family fled to Pakistan. He said his son telephoned and told him: "Daddy, I have been arrested and kidnapped, I'm speaking from the boot of a car."

Days later his son rang to say that he was an American prisoner of war. Mr Begg, whose father and grandfather served in the British Army, said that he was not initially concerned to hear that his son had been transferred to Guantanamo Bay. But he was alarmed to receive a letter from Moazzam claiming: "I am being treated like an animal in a zoo. I have been chained and they do not give me food at times."

Mr Begg said: "They were possibly badly beating him, pulling his nails, keeping him under sharp light that might have burnt his skin."

He added: "His children, who are here, are crying for their father day and night, his wife doesn't get to sleep, I'm also losing my health."

Simon Hughes, the party's home affairs spokesman, led condemnation of the American government for failing to give full legal representation and a fair trial to the detainees.

He said: "The US cannot hope to win hearts and minds in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere if it continues to deny fundamental rights to the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay."

Menzies Campbell, the party's foreign affairs spokesman, also condemned the treatment of detainees. He said: "No matter how heinous the charge, everyone is entitled to due process."

Mr Campbell attacked the Government's handling of intelligence in the run-up to war in Iraq and urged Tony Blair to published the Attorney General's full advice on the legality of war. He added: "War against Iraq was the first time that British troops were committed on the basis of intelligence alone and piece after piece of that intelligence has proved to be unreliable."