“I was never given any reason or explanation for my detention or any apology about any of the things that were done to me,” he told the committee. “I have been left with intermittent significant pain in my knees which I believe arises from being repeatedly forced on to my knees and pressed downwards by guards during various other processes during my detention These events happened almost every day I am also suffering continuing pain in my right elbow. He adds: “He has spent years in prison under conditions which at times have amounted to torture and have often been degrading and inhumane treatment. The US agreed to free the four Britons from Guantanamo Bay only after it received guarantees that they would be constantly monitored and face an investigation to ascertain whether they can be charged in this country.
The pledge, understood to have been made personally by Tony Blair, appears to have persuaded the White House to return the four men, whom it regards as “enemy combatants”. I am also concerned about the long-term psychological effects.”. For all this time his life was controlled by someone else.”Mr Harith was the first to be released without charge from Paddington Green police station after he was flown back to Britain last year.

You simply have to ask yourself how you would cope if you were put in their position.”In their compensation claim against the US government, four of the former detainees complain they were “repeatedly struck with rifle butts, punched, kicked and slapped. Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, the leader of the British Muslim Parliament, who is in regular contact with the Tipton men, said: “Their lives are shattered and they are still traumatised after what happened to them. It has been almost a year since five other Britons detained in Guantanamo Bay won their release. But there is little sign that any of them have been able to rebuild their lives.
Shafiq Rasul, 27, Asif Iqbal, 22, and Rhuhel Ahmed, 22, all from Tipton, West Midlands; Jamal al-Harith, 37, from Manchester, and Tarek Dergoul, 26, from London, have all returned to their communities. But officials inferred that her claim had fallen outside its criteria for both compulsory and discretionary payments because Professor Meadow was a private expert asked to “offer their opinions and expertise” on evidence rather than a state employee.. But they remain haunted by their experiences and, 10 months on, still require counselling to help come to terms with what lawyers agree was exposure to prolonged “inhumane and degrading treatment”. The authorities took over our lives and now they are saying no one is responsible.”She added that she was appealing against the ruling.Mrs Cannings was jailed for life in 2002 after being convicted of murdering her sons – seven-week-old Jason in 1991 and 18-week-old Matthew in 1999 – partly on evidence from Sir Roy.The Home Office refused to comment on Mrs Cannings’ compensation claim.

But legal experts said that officials dealing with the compensation claim had failed to take any account of the cost to Mrs Cannings of the loss of her liberty or the effect on her family of their long legal battle.Compensation will only be given if the defendant has had to depart from the normal appeals process or can be shown to have suffered from the actions of a “deficient” member of a public authority.Speaking from her home in Cornwall, Mrs Cannings said: “We have lost four or five years of our lives and none of it was our doing. Someone whose conviction has been quashed by the courts is entitled to compensation, whatever the grounds of that decision.”Mrs Cannings faces up to three years before she could prove that before the British courts and then another two or three years if she needed to take the case to Europe,” he added.The Home Office insisted last night that it was “confident” that its compensation system complied with the Human Rights Act. Tony Blair never promised Gordon Brown he would stand down before the next general election, allies of the Prime Minister insisted yesterday.
The Blair camp disputed the claim in a new book about the Chancellor that the Prime Minister pledged to quit last year. Campaigners and legal experts accused the Home Office yesterday of flouting human rights laws over its refusal to pay compensation to a mother wrongly convicted of the murders of two of her children. I have no doubt that the public interest lies in publication of the whole of the advice, but I am equally sure that the Government will not want to run the risk of political embarrassment.”Meanwhile a Times poll today suggests that British support for the war in Iraq has dropped to a record low Fewer than one in three believe the war was justified.. He denied that he had been “leant upon” by Tony Blair to pronounce war legal. “It was my genuine and independent view that action was lawful under existing United Nations Security Council resolutions,” he said on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.Sir Menzies Campbell, Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said the legal advice “lies right at the very heart of the Government’s case for military action against Iraq.

The Attorney General confirmed yesterday that the Government would not release the legal advice on the war on Iraq, despite a string of demands to see the papers under the Freedom of Information Act.
Lord Goldsmith said he “was not proposing to disclose advice given confidentially within government”. Our people are entering into the election, they want to see unity of purpose.”. Any kind of disagreement is exploited tremendously in the press. This time he replied: “Of course I trust the Prime Minister.”Mr Brown added: “I have worked very closely with him, and I have done so for the last 20 years, and I will continue to do so.