Tortuous Path Out of Prison for Guantánamo 3

The process that led to three former Guantánamo inmates returning to Britain yesterday began more than 18 months ago and involved secret and protracted negotiations between London and Washington.

A vigorous campaign and a series of legal battles forced Britain to reverse its longstanding refusal to help the men, even though it conceded long ago that they were unlikely to pose any serious threat. Documents have shown that talks about their release were under way in June 2006.

Initially, the Blair government asked solely for the return of Bisher al-Rawi, who was apprehended by the US while on a business trip to the Gambia in 2002. It was revealed that far from being a terrorist, Rawi had been helping MI5 keep track of a British-based terror suspect, Abu Qatada.

The Bush administration countered by making an offer to Britain: take all the British residents back.

Britain refused, with senior UK officials saying the men had no legal right to return. They also balked at the restrictions demanded by the American authorities.

Documents obtained by the Guardian show that the US wanted the detainees to be kept under 24-hour surveillance if set free - restrictions dismissed by Britain as unnecessary and unworkable.

The US has accused all of them of terrorist involvement, but Britain says there is no intelligence to warrant the measures Washington wants.

In the documents William Nye, then the director of counter-terrorism and intelligence at the Home Office, wrote: "They do not pose a sufficient threat ... the US administration envisages measures such that the returnees cannot legally leave the UK, engage with known extremists or engage in support, promote, plan or advocate extremist or violent activity, and further have the effect of ensuring that the British authorities would be certain to know immediately of any attempt to engage in any such activity."

Over the following months the Bush administration dropped its demands, and accepted that Britain would impose less stringent security arrangements than Washington initially had demanded. In August the government decided to request the return of five UK residents, on the eve of a court case brought by Jamil el-Banna's lawyers.

They were seeking a court order to allow him back into the UK, citing an American assessment from May which conceded that he no longer posed a security threat. The government was poised to lose the case and finally agreed to ask for his return to the UK.

The men's incarceration and allegations that they were being tortured caused their families deep distress.

In a suburban house in north London, four-year-old Maryam el-Banna's only knowledge of her father, Jamil, are photographs. He was incarcerated in Guantánamo before she was born.

Banna's health has suffered during his five years in US detention and his wife has campaigned for his release while bringing up four children. Omar Deghayes, another one of those freed, claims to have seen US guards kill people, prisoners being partially drowned, and the Qur'an thrown into a toilet by a US guard.

In total four British residents have been returned from the UK to Guantánamo; the three who arrived yesterday and Rawi, who was released earlier this year. Nine other British citizens were held and all freed by February 2005 after years of incarceration. None of the British citizens or residents were was ever charged or convicted of any offense despite their detention by the US.

A fourth British resident, Binyam Mohamed, remains in Guantánamo and alleges he was taken by the CIA to Morocco where he was tortured by having his penis cut with a razor blade.