UK residents 'still held in Cuba'

Some 500 people remain incarcerated at the Cuban jail

Several 'forgotten' British residents remain in custody at Guantanamo Bay as well as the four Britons whose release has been announced, lawyers say.

Feroz Abbasi, Richard Belmar, Moazzam Begg and Martin Mubanga are to be freed by the US in the next few weeks.

It is thought the others, four of them originally from Jordan, Iraq, Uganda, and Saudi Arabia, will remain.

Human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith said the UK must continue to fight for their release.

Speaking at a press conference alongside the father of Moazzam Begg, Mr Stafford Smith said these included several "long-term British residents" whose status as refugees had been recognised by the British government.

They are thought to include Iraqi-born Bisher al-Rawi, from London, and Jordanian Jamil al-Banna who were captured in Gambia in August 2002 and moved to Guantanamo in February 2003.

Shaker Abdur-Raheem Aamer, originally from Saudi Arabia was taken to Camp X-ray after being captured in Afghanistan in January 2002.

It is very important we do not forget the other lost souls in Guantamamo Bay and that we continue to fight for them Clive Stafford Smith

The other British residents thought to still be at the prison camp include Ugandan Jamal Abdullah and another detainee, whose name is not known.

Mr Stafford Smith said the UK still had a responsibility towards these captives.

He said: "It is very important we do not forget the other lost souls in Guantamamo Bay and that we continue to fight for them."

The British residents are among the hundreds of people still held without trial at the US base.

Human rights campaign group Amnesty International said it remained concerned about the plight of the remaining detainees.

It called upon the UK government to fight for the release of the British residents.

UK director Kate Allen said: "In addition, 500 other detainees from around 40 countries remain in legal limbo.

We can represent British citizens...[but] we cannot represent those who choose not to seek British citizenship and make their own choices presumably because they want to maintain the citizenship of their birth Jack Straw

"People's human rights should not hang on whether or not they are from acountry friendly to the USA."

Asked about the plight of Mr al-Banna, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the UK government was only able under international law to take up consular matters in respect of British citizens.

"That means that we are not able to make representations on behalf of people,no matter how long they've been resident here, who are not nationals and more to the point the US government...would not accept those representations from us.

"And I know that's frustrating...but that is the situation," he told MPs.

Regarding Mr al-Rawi, he said he had lived in Britain for many years and would have been entitled to British citizenship but had chosen to remain an Iraqi national.

He said: "We can represent British citizens...[but] we cannot represent those who choose not to seek British citizenship and make their own choices presumably because they want to maintain the citizenship of theirbirth."

He promised the government would continue to test "the envelope" on such matters, but warned he did not want to raise hopes.