LONDON, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, in what appeared to be a shift in government policy, called Thursday for British citizens being held among al Qaida and Taliban suspects at a U.S. base in Cuba to be tried in the United Kingdom.
Three Britons are reported among the estimated 160 detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Straw said "it is far preferable ... for them to come to the U.K. to face justice here."
Until now, the British government has insisted it was up to the United States to decide the fate of the captives, and Foreign Minister Ben Bradshaw, one of Straw's underlings, two days ago had indicated Britain's main concern was over the possibility the death penalty could be imposed on British citizens.
"The British government regularly, in cases where the death penalty may be imposed on British citizens, makes our views on the death penalty very clear to the American authorities," Bradshaw said. "We are opposed to the death penalty."
But Straw's views, expressed during a British Broadcasting Corp. radio interview on Thursday, were far stronger on bringing the British suspects back home for trial, although he added, "We don't know the exact circumstances, and we continue to be in discussion with the Americans."
The foreign secretary did not elaborate on his comments. But his spokesman later told journalists that trials on British soil for the three might come only after a "long and exhaustive pre-trial process" by U.S. authorities.
Feroz Abbasi, a 22-year-old former computer studies student from the London suburb of Croydon, has been identified as one of the three Britons being held at Guantanamo Bay. The names of the other two have not been disclosed.
