Leaders of the legal professions in the UK, Australia, Canada and France this week called for the return of their countries' nationals being held by the US military authorities in Guantanamo Bay.

In a strong attack on the Bush administration's policy of instigating military tribunals for 'enemy combatants', the lawyers said: 'Either the US government must return the detainees to their own home countries where they can be tried, if appropriate, under their own national laws, or they should be tried in a US civilian court with full guarantees for a fair trial.'

The statement - released at the American Bar Association's (ABA) annual conference in San Francisco - was signed by Peter Williamson, president of the Law Society of England and Wales, Matthias Kelly QC, chairman of the Bar Council of England and Wales, Ron Heinrich, president of the Law Council of Australia, Paul-Albert Iweins, president of the Paris Bar, Joseph Platt, president of the Law Society of Scotland, Joseph Donnelly, president of the Law Society of Northern Ireland, and Canadian Bar president Simon Potter.

The 660 detainees at the US military camp in Cuba from the military action in Afghanistan, nine are British, two Australian, four French, and one Canadian.

The statement also contained a thinly veiled criticism of the Blair government's attempts to intervene.

Recently, the Attorney-General, Lord Goldsmith QC, obtained some concessions on whether conversations between the UK detainees and their lawyers would be monitored.

But the bar leaders' statement condemned the move, saying: 'It is not for the US government to "concede" basic rights as a favour.

All detainees are entitled to a fair and lawful trial as of right.'

The ABA's ruling House of Delegates will this week vote on proposals calling on the US authorities to amend its processes, including not monitoring conversations between civilian lawyers and their detainee clients, and allowing non-US lawyers to participate in the defence.

See Editorial, page 14 (see [2003] Gazette, 14 August, 14)

Jonathan Ames in San Francisco