Missing presumed guilty: where terror suspects are being held

UK: 402 arrests under the Terrorism Act 2000. 49 have been charged, mostly with immigration offences, and are awaiting trial; five have been convicted - three for membership of banned organisations.

UK

402 arrests under the Terrorism Act 2000. 49 have been charged, mostly with immigration offences, and are awaiting trial; five have been convicted - three for membership of banned organisations. Another 15 are detained as a "risk to national security" under Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001. They can't be deported because of death penalty or torture in their home country, though two have since left the UK of their own volition. Rest are locked up for 22 hours a day in single cells, at Belmarsh top-security prison and HMP Woodhill, with restricted access to lawyers and families.

US

1,200 detained, at least 484 still held. Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn has 84 detainees; Passaic County Jail in New Jersey has 400. Plus secret sites. US government refuses to release identities of detainees. Inspector General of US Department of Justice last week confirmed abuses reported by human rights groups: prolonged detention without charge, denial of access to legal counsel, and excessively harsh conditions of confinement including "lock down" for at least 23 hours per day; handcuffs, leg irons, and heavy chains; and a limit of one legal telephone call per week.

CUBA

The 680 men held Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay, are described by the Americans as among the "hardest of the hard core" of al-Qa'ida terrorist suspects from more than 40 countries. Mainly Afghans and Pakistanis, about 150 Saudis and 83 Yemenis, but also nine Britons, some Australians, and six Algerians picked up in Bosnia. All are held without charge or trial; Washington insists Geneva Conventions don't apply; US courts refuse to exercise jurisdiction. Detainees live in wire cages and are subjected to CIA and MI5 interrogations. Senior defence officials have told US media off the record that as many as 10 per cent may be innocent. All are denied access to legal counsel. Only allowed out for two 15-minute exercise breaks a week. At least 28 suicide attempts to date.

SPAIN

50 held. The aftermath of September 11 brought a further crackdown on Basque separatists. Spain's anti-terror laws permit the use of incommunicado detention, secret legal proceedings, and pre-trial detention for up to four years.

MOROCCO

Infamous for torture. Has detained at least 35 terrorist suspects in the wake of the five simultaneous Casablanca suicide bombs. Another 100 have been "referred" there by US

EGYPT

Between 100 and "several thousand" al-Qa'ida suspects have been transferred from Afghanistan to Egypt, where the secret police use full-blown torture techniques. Hundreds of domestic suspects have been arrested and taken before military or state security courts since 11 September.

JORDAN

Between 100 and "several thousand" al-Qa'ida suspects have been transferred from Afghanistan to Jordan, where security services use torture including sleep deprivation, beatings on the soles of the feet, prolonged suspension with ropes and extended solitary confinement.

SAUDI ARABIA

Unknown number of detainees. During interrogations, US officials observe through one-way mirrors.

IRAQ

3,087 PoWs and interned civilians still held in 19 centres by coalition forces. The 5,905 other PoWs have now been released in accordance with Article 118 of the Third Geneva Convention. US forces are still rounding up "civilian" Iraqis suspected of involvement with paramilitary squads and may ship them to Guantanamo Bay.

DIEGO GARCIA

An unknown number of prisoners are held in US base on the Indian Ocean island leased from the UK. US interrogators impersonate nationals of countries known to use torture, in an effort to disorientate captives.

INDONESIA

30 people held under terrorism decrees. Since the Bali bomb, links have been assumed between local Islamist movements and al-Qa'ida. Police conduct public interrogations of suspects and use detainees in public re-enactments of the crime. New laws are imminent to allow police to detain suspected terrorists for questioning for up to six months. The broad definition of terrorism could include political dissenters.

INDIA

At least 300 detained under the new 2002 Prevention of Terrorism Act. The law is used against Muslim separatists in Kashmir, but also against other Muslim activists.

CHINA

At least 400 Chinese Muslims have been jailed since China took advantage of the "war on terror" to deepen its crackdown on ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang province. China claims 500 members of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), financed by Osama bin Laden, fought with the Taliban and in Chechnya. ETIM is now on the US State Department list of terrorist organisations.

AFGHANISTAN

3,000 Taliban and al-Qa'ida prisoners are held in Bagram airbase and Jowzjan prison. Bagram is a CIA interrogation centre, practising "stress and duress" or "torture-lite". Prisoners are blindfolded and thrown into walls, kept standing or kneeling for hours, in black hoods or spray-painted goggles, bound in painful positions, subjected to loud noises and deprived of sleep, with a 24-hour bombardment of lights. At least two detainees have died after being beaten. Bagram is off-limits to the Red Cross.

UZBEKISTAN

"Thousands" imprisoned since September 11. Uzbekistan has used the "war on terror" to justify its longstanding campaign to eliminate Islamists. Western governments, particularly the United States, are now less critical of the Uzbek human rights record.

CHECHNYA

Some 1,300 people have vanished since September 11. Disappearances currently running at the rate of 60 a month. In first two months of this year there were 70 murders, 126 abductions, and 25 cases in which corpses were found. Prisoners are routinely beaten and tortured.

GEORGIA

Georgian troops detained "several" suspected al-Qa'ida members last autumn and handed them over to the US after a raid on the Pankisi gorge - home to refugees fleeing Chechnya. Russia and the US both claim it is a haven for al-Qa'ida. A US-sponsored operation involves 60 US military personnel and British anti-terrorism experts.

SYRIA

At least one "war on terror" suspect has been held by Syria, which the US regards as a sponsor of terrorism and a user of torture. The alleged al-Qa'ida leader Mohammed Haydar Zammar was transferred there by US operatives. German government has been strongly critical of his detention, since Zammar holds joint German and Syrian citizenship.

ISRAEL

900 Palestinians held in administrative detention, without charge or trial. Most have no access to lawyers. Israeli authorities characterise all armed Palestinian activity as terrorism, and justify Israeli military actions as a part of the global "war on terror". Last year, the Knesset passed the Illegal Combatants Law, which enables the military to hold individuals indefinitely on the basis of assumption rather than proven guilt.

LOCATIONS UNKNOWN

There are a number of secret US detention centres overseas where due process does not apply. The CIA undertakes a "false flag operation" using fake decor and disguises meant to deceive a captive into thinking he is imprisoned in a country with a reputation for brutality, when, in reality, he is still in CIA hands.