Britain 'may not challenge' Donald Trump if he decides to send jihadi 'Beatles' to Guantanamo, Justice Secretary says
Britain has yet to make any representations to Washington because it must first ‘consider our options’', David Gauke says
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Your support makes all the difference.Britain may not challenge a possible decision by Donald Trump to send the British jihadi suspects dubbed “the Beatles” to Guantanamo Bay, the Justice Secretary suggested.
David Gauke said Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh – captured by US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria – should face “due process” rather than be locked up without trial.
But he refused to say the Government would intervene if the US President opted to send the pair to the notorious detention centre in Cuba for suspected terrorists.
Mr Gauke said Britain had yet to make any representations to Washington, because it first needed to “consider our options and determine what is the right way forward”.
And, asked if President Trump would be challenged if necessary, he replied: “We need to consider what our options are first before I say precisely what actions we will take to pursue that.”
It emerged on Thursday that the two Londoners, part of a four-man cell nicknamed “the Beatles” because of its members’ English accents, were in custody in northern Syria.
Led by Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John – who was killed in a drone strike carried out jointly by the US and the UK in 2016 – their victims included UK aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning.
It is suspected that some members of the Trump administration will push for Kotey and Elsheikh to be sent to Guantanamo Bay indefinitely, after the President vowed the camp would remain open.
Another mooted destination, which would follow a trial, is the brutal ADX Florence “supermax” jail in Colorado and solitary confinement in the prison’s notorious H-Unit.
It has been reported that they would be virtually starved of human contact, spending up to 23 hours a day in a tiny concrete and metal cell, eating meals alone and only allowed to exercise in an isolated “cage” nearby.
Tobias Ellwood, the defence minister, has said they should be tried by an international court at The Hague, after they were reportedly stripped of British citizenship.
Speaking on ITV’s Peston on Sunday programme, Mr Gauke said The Hague was “clearly one of the options”.
“As someone who believes in our principles of the rule of law and so on, my belief is that they need to be properly brought to justice. But, I think we need to consider what are the practical options in these circumstances,” he said.
He added: “Ultimately, everybody should be brought to justice. And that includes due process.”
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