A British resident has been blinded in one eye by American military police at Guantanamo Bay, his lawyer claimed today.

Omar Deghayes’ family appealed for the British Government to intervene and secure his release, almost 25 years to the day since his father was assassinated by Colonel Gaddafi’s regime in Libya.

Mr Deghayes mother Zohra Zewawi, from Brighton, wept as lawyer Clive Stafford Smith described the injuries the detainee has allegedly suffered at the Cuban base.

"In March 2004 the Emergency Reaction Force in Camp Delta came into his cell," he said.

"They brought their pepper spray and held him down. They held both of his eyes open and sprayed it into his eyes and later took a towel soaked in pepper spray and rubbed it in his eyes.

"Omar could not see from either eye for two weeks but he gradually got sight back in one eye.

"He’s totally blind in the right eye. I can report that his right eye is all white and milky - he can’t see out of it because he has been blinded by the US in Guantanamo."

Mr Stafford Smith added that one of the officers also pushed his finger into Mr Deghayes’ eye.

It was a combination of the pepper spray and the gouging which led to loss of his sight, the lawyer claimed.

Mr Deghayes, 35, came to the UK with his family from Libya in 1986, six years after his father, Amer, was allegedly killed by the Gaddafi regime - an incident reported by Amnesty International at the time.

The detainees’ brother Taher Deghayes, 38, and sister Amani Deghayes, 30, joined their mother in asking Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to step up diplomatic efforts to secure either his fair trial or release.

Taher, who runs a fibreglass factory in Dubai, said: "We believe that our brother is innocent.

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