Al-Qa'ida Briton 'brainwashed'

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One of the suspected al-Qa'ida prisoners held by US forces at Camp X-Ray in Cuba is a "brainwashed" college dropout from Croyden, south London, his mother said yesterday.

Feroz Abbasi, 22, a former computer student, was listed by Red Cross officials in Washington among more than 100 prisoners at the makeshift US prison.

His mother, who brought him from Uganda when he was eight, said: "I hope they will not use the death penalty. Whatever they are going to do to them, I have the right to see my child."

Abbasi was "brainwashed", she said, after he fell under the influence of Abu Hamza al Masri, a cleric who was arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and released without charge in 1999.

The evidence of links between Islamic militants at Hamza's Finsbury Park mosque and al-Qa'ida will fuel fears that active cells of the terrorist group could still be present in the UK.

British intelligence officers have joined the CIA in interrogating the suspects in Cuba for possible links with al-Qa'ida cells in Britain.

However, concern over the treatment of the prisoners grew after graphic photographs were released showing the captives kneeling in red overalls, with their mouths, ears and eyes covered.