Three British men held without charge at the US military base Guantanamo Bay were to see their lawyers for the first time within days, at a start of a new legal battle to get the men released, the British newspaper Independent on Sunday reported.  

Two US lawyers were preparing to fly to the US detention center in Cuba to see Moazzam Begg, Feroz Abbasi and Martin Mubanga, who have been held as alleged al-Qaeda terrorists without access to lawyers since 2002, the paper said.

According to the paper, the two attorneys, Brent Mickum and Gitanjali Gutierrez, hope to arrive in Guantanamo Bay this week. They would check allegations that their clients have been tortured, deprived of humane living conditions and were suffering from severe mental problems.

In March, five British detainees, who were among the nine Britons imprisoned in Guantanamo without charge or access to a lawyer, were freed and returned to Britain without any charge.

The United States has faced fresh allegations of abuses at Guantanamo Bay after three of the released British detainees claimed to have been repeatedly abused during their detention at the US naval base.

The British government is still in discussions with Washington over the detention of four other Britons at the US base.

(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2004)