A FORMER detainee of Guantanamo Bay told your Worcester News that American plans to put 9/11 suspects before a military tribunal made "a mockery of justice."

On the very day that Moazzam Begg, 39, was in Worcester to speak at a meeting of the city's Stop the War group about his experiences as a prisoner at the Cuban prison camp, the US Government was announcing plans to charge six of the remaining Guantanamo detainees with murder, terrorism and war crimes for their alleged roles in the September 11 attacks.

But Mr Begg was highly critical of the decision to try the men before specially-convened military tribunals, rather than proper courts of law.

"People are going to be put on trial in a process that is not recognised even in the US, where it would be illegal," he said. "To have such a process allowed exclusively on this 45-mile square patch of land in Guantanamo Bay is an affront to justice.

"There can't be one set of rules for one set of people and another for another set of people.

"The fact that torture evidence and coerced statements can be used, hearsay evidence can be used, that you can't call your own witnesses - it's not an open trial. All of those things give credence to the fact that what you can expect in Guantanamo will be a mockery of justice."

Mr Begg was himself threatened with a military tribunal in 2004, when he was a prisoner of the camp. At that time the US plan was shelved after being publicly opposed by Britain's then-Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, who said such a hearing would not offer a fair trial.

Mr Begg said: "All this is going to do is undermine the United States' position as a country that maintains law, order, liberty, democracy."