THE family of a former Huddersfield University student held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba will today appeal to the government to secure his release.

Law student Omar Deghayes has been held by the USA at a military base since early 2002.

He joined a legal practice course at Huddersfield in 1998, but never completed his course.

He was detained after a visit to Afghanistan.

Mr Deghayes, 35, came to the UK from Libya with his family in 1986 - six years after his father, Amer, was allegedly assassinated by Colonel Muammar Gadaffi's regime.

The detainee was a student member of the Law Society - the organisation representing 93,000 solicitors in England and Wales.

It will today back pleas for his release.

Omar's mother Zohra Zewawi, from Brighton, and brother Taher Deghayes, who lives in Camden, north London, will ask Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to step up diplomatic efforts on his behalf.

Law Society president Edward Nally said: "The recent release of four British citizens was a significant development, but the international community must not overlook the treatment of the remaining detainees.

"I fail to understand why these prisoners continue to be held without trial.

"Any evidence against them should be presented to a court run in accordance with internationally recognised legal standards or they should be set free."

Mr Deghayes is a British resident and had applied for British citizenship.

Mr Deghayes studied law at Wolverhampton University before beginning his Legal Practice Course at Huddersfield in 1998.

He went to Afghanistan to see what life was like under a strict Islamic regime.

While there he met and married an Afghan woman and the couple have a four-year-old son, Suleiman.

Mr Deghayes moved his family to Pakistan after the September 11 atrocities because he feared for their safety, but was arrested by Pakistani police.

He was taken to Bagram air base and later transferred to Guantanamo Bay.

A spokesman for Reprieve, campaigning for the Guantanamo detainees, said he has been visited by British officials seven times at both camps, including British intelligence.

Mr Deghayes' lawyer Clive Stafford Smith and Professor Bill Bowring from the Bar Human Rights Committee will speak at a press conference later today.

Mr Stafford Smith believes that a total of seven residents of Britain are being held in Cuba, but only five have been identified.