Wife's plea for terror suspect's return

Detainees at Guantanamo Bay

The wife of a British terrorist suspect has made an impassioned plea to Tony Blair to help free her husband to meet the baby son he has never seen.

Speaking on the first birthday of the couple's youngest child, Sally Begg said her husband Moazzam, 35, had missed the birth of the youngster after his arrest in Pakistan.

Mrs Begg, whose husband has been detained in Cuba at the American military camp at Guantanamo Bay, said he had been working as a teacher and charity worker at the time of his detention.

She has asked that her husband, who has been named among those expected to face the first US military tribunal hearings, be repatriated and tried before a British court.

Personal appeal

Mrs Begg, who was at the couple's home in Islamabad 18 months ago when her husband was arrested by the Pakistani authorities, said: "I think he should be brought back home where I can see him, where the children can see him, where he can see his baby that he has never seen and who is one-year-old today."

Speaking to BBC Radio WM she made a personal appeal to the British Prime Minister, who is due to meet President Bush this week.

She said: "I would say 'You are a father, you are a husband and you are there for your wife.

"I want my husband to be there for my children and for me and I need him just like your wife needs you'."

I think he should be brought back home where I can see him, where the children can see him, where he can see his baby that he has never seen and who is one-year-old today Sally Begg

Mrs Begg, who has since moved back to the UK, added: "My husband is British so he should come home and be tried in Britain.

"I believe that my husband has not done anything wrong and that he should come home to me and the children.

"If he has done anything wrong, then he should be tried, but he should be tried on British soil, in Britain and with fair lawyers in a normal court - not a military tribunal."

Mrs Begg, who has three other children aged seven, five and two with her husband, described how their home in Islamabad was raided on the same night she told him she was pregnant with their fourth child.

Frequently depressed

"I was asleep in the room with my children and never saw my husband ever again - they walked off with him.

"They took all the money I had, they took all the telephones, they took all the numbers.

"I had no telephone numbers, no phone, no money.

"I was pregnant all on my own with four kids."

Mrs Begg admitted she was frequently depressed and has kept in touch with her husband through the Red Cross and American authorities, though his replies have been intermittent.

Mistaken identity

"I get a letter once every four months. I don't know why it takes so long to get to him and for him to reply and for him to get back to me.

"He wrote a few things in the letters - basically that he had not seen the sun or the moon or the stars or anything for a whole year.

"He said that he did not get very much food in Bagram, in the airbase, but I think in Guantanamo Bay his treatment is much better."

Mr Begg's family insist that the father-of-four from Sparkbrook in Birmingham is innocent of any wrongdoing and his detention is the result of a case of mistaken identity.