UK sets conditions for Bin Laden trial

Britain would hand over Osama bin Laden to the US but only on condition he would not face the death penalty, the defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, said yesterday.

He said he believed the US was the correct place for any trial of the main suspect behind the September 11 attacks even if he was captured by British troops - a reference to SAS soldiers fighting alongside US special forces and anti-Taliban militia in the mountains of Tora Bora.

But any extradition would require "certain undertakings" from the US authorities.

The European convention on human rights, enshrined in the Human Rights Act, prevents the extradition of suspects to countries with the death penalty unless assurances are given that they will not be executed. "That is the law," a senior defence source said last night.

Similar conditions should apply if terrorist suspects are tried in the US by special military tribunals set up by President Bush, lawyers say. Suspects could be tried in secret and not be told of the evidence against them, in breach of the human rights convention.

Asked what would happen to Bin Laden if he fell into the hands of British troops, Mr Hoon told BBC1's Breakfast with Frost programme: "I believe that it would be very important to respect the international legislation relevant to those circumstances.

"That is that the country that has the main call on him as far as bringing him to justice is concerned, which clearly is the United States - we should hand him over fairly promptly to face justice in the US."

He added: "I see no reason in principle why that shouldn't happen. It would mean, of course, that certain undertakings would have to be given about any penalty he might face." Asked whether this meant that the US authorities would have to offer assurances that Bin Laden would not face execution, Mr Hoon said: "That is the position."

Dick Cheney, the US vice-president, said yesterday that Washington would insist that Bin Laden was turned over to US authorities if captured alive.

"We made it very clear that we want Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar and their senior leadership, and if they're taken alive we expect to take custody of them," he said. "They're exactly the kind of people the military tribunals were established for."

But the deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, suggested Mullah Omar at least could be tried in Afghanistan: "We would want to be sure that the kind of justice they would get in Afghanistan would be very similar to what they would get here. Asked if that included the death penalty, he said, "It might mean something quite similar."

The US believes Bin Laden is in Tora Bora and that Mullah Omar is in the Kandahar area. General Richard Myers, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said the latest information on Bin Laden was in "the so-called Tora Bora area, there in the hills, with some other al-Qaida fighters and they are fighting fiercely".