A FORMER Huddersfield University student held by the USA at Guantanamo Bay was today asking the High Court for orders requiring Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to call for his release.
Lawyers for Omar Deghayes and two other British detainees and their families say allegations of torture being practised at the detention camp in Cuba mean the British Government is obliged to act on their behalf.
Mr Deghayes, 37, has been held in solitary confinement without trial for three years.
He was detained in Pakistan and his name was said to be on the FBI's `most wanted' list - but the photo in his file was of a different person, say campaigners on his behalf.
Mr Deghayes is a long-term UK resident, but Foreign Office officials have refused to help secure his release because he does not have British nationality.
The Government says that - as foreign nationals - Mr Deghayes, along with Bisher al-Rawi and Jamil el-Banna have no legal right to the help available to actual British citizens.
Mr Justice Collins, who ruled that the case was `arguable' and should go to a full hearing, said that the US idea of what constituted torture "is not the same as ours and doesn't appear to coincide with that of most civilised countries".
Today, Lord Justice Latham and Mr Justice Tugendhat, sitting in London, were considering the full application for judicial review.
The hearing is expected to last three days.
The Government's counsel, Philip Sales, is expected to argue that it is only through the medium of their nationality that persons can seek to enjoy the obligations placed on a state by international law.
