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Father's anger at 'execution' plan

Some detainees may be executed if convicted at military trials

The father of a terror suspect held in Guantanamo Bay has condemned reports that the US authorities have drawn up plans for an execution chamber at the Cuban compound.

Azmat Begg maintains his 35-year-old son Moazzam is innocent of any wrongdoing and called on the British Government to take action to protect him.

Moazzam Begg, from Sparkbrook in Birmingham, was seized in Pakistan in February 2002 and was transferred to Guantanamo Bay a year later.

His father told the BBC's Midlands Today programme he is angry at the treatment of Moazzam.

'No answers'

"I am very worried about it. What about his human rights?

"The Americans are doing whatever they feel like and nobody can say anything to them.

I should be given the right to visit him and he should be given all the human rights that he is entitled to

Azmat Begg

"I do not know what kind of law this is."

He added that, despite the attempts by lawyers in both Britain and the US, there had been no "positive answers" about the future of the nine Britons being held among 600 terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay.

It is reported that the British suspects could face the death penalty if convicted of links with the Taleban regime or the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

Mr Begg said he last heard from his son, a father-of-four, one month ago and learned something of the conditions he is being held under.

He said his son told him he was getting food and medical attention, but added that he did not know what he was supposed to have done.

Visits prevented

Azmat Begg said: "He is taken out in the morning for about 15 minutes from his cell in the open and the same in the evening.

"He is on his own and there is no one to talk to. He is very lonely."

Moazzam Begg was captured in Pakistan

Mr Begg's family claim he is the victim of a case of mistaken identity.

His father said he had written a letter to the US authorities pleading for permission to visit his son at the Cuban camp but his request had been refused.

"I should be given the right to visit him and he should be given all the human rights that he is entitled to," he said, adding that the US should not be able to hold British citizens without charge or the chance to appear in court.

"If he has done anything wrong he should be taken to court and if he is found guilty he should be punished," he said.

Mr Begg now intends to continue his campaign to travel to the prison camp to visit his son.

"I will write a letter to the President of America, to Tony Blair and the other authorities to try to go to America and see my son," he said.