Last Briton in Guantanamo faces death

LONDON, May 30 (UPI) -- The last British prisoner in U.S. detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has appealed to Prime Minister Gordon Brown to save him from a death sentence.

Binyam Mohamed, 29, from Kensington, England, is expected soon to be charged by U.S. authorities with terrorism-related offenses. He denies the charges and has written to Brown asking him to intercede with U.S. President George Bush to stop a military "kangaroo court" proceeding, reported The Independent Friday.

In his letter, Mohamed wrote, "I have been held without trial by the U.S. for six years, one month and 12 days. That is 2,234 days (very long days and often longer nights). Of this, about 550 days were in a torture chamber in Morocco and about 150 in the 'Dark Prison' in Kabul. Still there is no end in sight, no prospect of a fair trial."

Three of the remaining five British residents held at Guantanamo Bay were flown home last year after the British government interceded on their behalf. A fourth negotiated his transfer to Saudi Arabia.

But the United States has refused Britain's request to release Mohamed, who was originally allowed into Britain as an asylum seeker from Ethiopia but then traveled to Pakistan in 2002 where he was arrested.

The United States and Britain say Mohamed was trained in an al-Qaida camp.