Government pressure has secured the release of four Guantanamo Bay prisoners who had British residency rights at the time of their detention, despite Pentagon concerns that they still pose a terrorist risk, it emerged last night.

Three men are expected to be back in Britain before Christmas. Another detainee, Shaker Aamer — who the US Defence Department alleged recently had links to the “highest level” of al-Qaeda — will go home to Saudi Arabia.

But a fifth man who once lived in Kensington is expected to remain in detention at the American naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Binyam Mohammed could face trial under a military tribunal system, the legality of which has itself been challenged at the US Supreme Court. A US military indictment alleges that he received firearms and explosives training alongside the shoebomber Richard Reid, was lectured by Osama bin Laden and had been given a terrorist mission by one of the masterminds behind the September 11 attacks.

Mr Mohammed, 29, an Ethiopian who converted to Islam while living in London in the 1990s, denies the allegations and says that he was tortured at a CIA “ghost prison” in Morocco.

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, has been working with David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, to negotiate the release of the men from Guantanamo and their return home. Although all UK citizens held at Guantanamo have long since come home, this August the Prime Minister made a formal request for the return of those who had a right to live in Britain when they were captured.

Whitehall sources insisted last night that negotiations to secure the men’s release were still taking place with the US authorities. The Government has assured the United States that it will take whatever precautions are needed to ensure that the men do not represent a threat to US interests.

If the British security services and police have evidence that they are suspected of involvement in terrorist activity, the men face being charged or placed under a control order restricting their movement. In reality, a control order would be the most likely option.

Senior officials in Washington last night confirmed that “a deal had been done” and indicated that, as a condition of their release, the three men would be “subject to strict supervision or possibly control orders when they come home”.

MI5 is understood to have drawn up detailed contingency plans for the surveillance of Jamil El Banna, a Jordanian refugee whose family live in northwest London, Omar Deghayes, who lived in Brighton and was a refugee from Libya, and Algerian-born Abdennour Sameur, whose last British address was in Bournemouth.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office reviewed its approach because of the Government’s desire to see the closure of the Guantanamo prison camp and recent steps by the US Government to reduce the numbers of detainees being held there.

All the men, some of whom had lived and worked in Britain for decades, had been granted refugee status, indefinite leave or exceptional leave to remain before they were detained.

Reports of their imminent release, which has not yet been confirmed by the Pentagon, came as President Bush faced fresh embarrassment over the CIA’s decision to destroy tapes of interrogations that it made of two al-Qaeda suspects in 2002.

Mr Bush’s spokeswoman said that he had “no recollection” of the existence of the two videotapes — or any decision to wipe them. But human rights groups accuse the CIA of destroying evidence that it has tortured suspects with “enhanced interrogation” techniques. A US Senate committee yesterday promised a thorough investigation into the tapes, which the CIA claims were wiped clean to protect the identity of agents.

In 2005, four men who had been released from Guantanamo Bay were released without charge once they had returned to the UK.

Moazzam Begg, Martin Mubanga, Feroz Abbasi and Richard Belmar were arrested and questioned under the Terrorism Act 2000 on returning to the country, but were released just a few weeks later.

Mr Begg, 36, from Birmingham, Mr Abbasi, 25, from Croydon, South London, Mr Mubanga, 32, from Wembley, northwest London, and Mr Belmar, 25, from St John’s Wood, northwest London, had spent three years in American custody at the Cuban base, accused of links with al-Qaeda.

At the time, the Pentagon said that it still believed that the men continued to represent a threat and that British authorities had been asked for assurances “that the detainees will not pose a continuing security threat to the United States or its allies” before they flew back to Britain.

The allegations

Omar Deghayes Libyan. He is accused of committing terrorist acts against the United States, but his lawyers insist that it is a case of mistaken identity. He will return to the UK

Shaker Aamer
Saudi Arabian. He has lived in the UK since 1996 and went to Afghanistan in 2001 to carry out charity work. He had indefinite leave to stay in the UK when he was captured. He will return to Saudi Arabia

Jamil El Banna
Jordanian. He has been detained since 2003 and questioned about his links to Abu Qatada, the radical Muslim cleric. He will now return to the UK

Abdennour Sameur
Algerian. He came to the UK in 1999 and admitted having prior knowledge of the attacks on September 11, 2001, but has said that he made the confession because he feared that his leg would be amputated because US interrogators said that they would not treat the gun wound from his arrest. He will return to the UK

Binyam Mohammed
Ethopian. He sought asylum in the UK in 1994 and was given leave to remain. He allegedly had firearms and explosives training alongside Richard Reid, the shoe bomber. He claims to have been tortured in Cuba. US authorities allege he planned to blow up flats in an apartment block in the US. He will remain at Guantanamo Bay

Sources: Times Database, BBC

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