Review panels set up by the US military to assess the validity of detaining terrorism suspects at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp are unlikely to be fair and should be abandoned, leaders of Commonwealth bars told lawyers at last week's American Bar Association's annual conference in Atlanta.

Led by the Law Society and Bar Council, 28 bar leaders from across the Commonwealth signed a joint statement damning the panels and calling for the detainees to be allowed to challenge their detention in civilian US courts.


Last June, the US Supreme Court ruled that the detainees may test the validity of the right of US military to hold them. However, the ruling was vague in relation to the forum in which the challenges could be heard. So far, applications have been filed on behalf of two of the four remaining British detainees, Feroz Abbasi and Moazzam Begg.


In its joint statement, the Commonwealth lawyers said: 'In view of the considerable time that these detainees have been held, without access to lawyers of their choice or their families and reportedly in conditions of physical and psychological distress, the case for them to be able to challenge their detention in a civilian court is stronger than ever.'


Law Society President Edward Nally described the review panel process as being 'highly suspect and impossible to reconcile with the Supreme Court ruling'.


Mr Nally said there was a strong case for the remaining Britons - and those being held who were long-term British residents - to be returned to the UK as soon as possible. 'The purpose of the interrogations and extended detention must be drawing to a close,' he said.


Bar Council chairman Stephen Irwin QC described the review panels as 'an unacceptable process'. He too called for an early return of the British detainees. 'We ask the US government to test properly the evidence and if there is no evidence against them, they should be sent back to the UK.'


Incoming ABA president Robert Grey said he was pleased the Supreme Court ruling had supported amicus briefs submitted by the association. He confirmed that ABA lawyers would take up observer status at the full military commission tribunals that are being set up to try some of the detainees.


Five British Guantanamo detainees were repatriated last March and were not charged by the British authorities. About 600 detainees remain detained at the camp in Cuba from some 40 nations.