By Lou Thomas
A campaign by The Argus, Brighton, to free a local man from Guantanamo Bay will reach the High Court next week to determine if the Foreign Office can be ordered to help secure his release.
A judicial review at the court between 22 and 25 March will decide whether to order the Foreign Office to help Omar Deghayes and the two other detainees at the US naval base in Cuba.
Civil rights lawyer Gareth Peirce, whose work secured the release of the Birmingham Six 15 years ago this week, has taken up the case for Deghayes.
Miriam Wells, the reporter spearheading the campaign for The Argus, said: "The judge at the High Court hearing — where they decided whether or not the judicial review should go ahead — opened the case by saying the US’s definition of torture was clearly different from everyone else’s.
"I think a lot of the judges are outraged by what is happening and they’ve got the power to make the Government act. It’s just whether the Government stalls after that."
The campaign to release Deghayes, who has been held for three years in solitary confinement without trial, was launched by The Argus last year.
Dossiers on the case were presented to Tony Blair in February, but the Prime Minister referred the case back to the Foreign Office.
Last year The Argus delivered a dossier with statements from MPs, 200 campaign coupons and 200 letters of support, in addition to newspaper coverage of the campaign, to home secretary Charles Clarke.
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