The British government has complained to the United States about plans to try in secret two Britons held at Guantánamo Bay in front of a military commission, it emerged last night.
The Foreign Office has expressed its "strong reservations" to the US government and has made it clear it would oppose vigorously any such trial if there was any prospect of the death penalty being used.
Answering an emergency question in the Commons, Chris Mullin, a Foreign Office minister, said ministers had raised, and would continue to raise, Britain's concerns with the US.
"We have make clear to the US that we expect the process to meet internationally accepted standards of a fair trial, and we will follow the process very carefully," he said.
The government was "fundamentally opposed" to the use of the death penalty and would raise the strongest possible objections if there was any chance of this being applied in these cases.
The statement followed the US announcement last week that two British al-Qaeda suspects held at Guantánamo Bay, Moazzam Begg and Feroz Abbasi, were among the initial list of six suspects who could face secret trials conducted by the US military.
Mr Mullin said Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, had spoken to the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, about the matter over the weekend and would do so again in the next few days.
The affair threatens to strain British-US relations, which have been extremely good over the past year, particularly through the joint military operation in Iraq.
David Winnick, a Labour MP, pointed out that Britain was one of the US's closest allies and implied that the US government could not afford to lose British support.
He asked: "Shouldn't the US listen very closely and heed the concern of a very close ally? I hope they will do so because the US requires all the friends it can have."
Mr Mullin said he hoped the US would listen to the representations being made by the government and others .
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