MADRID, Nov 11: Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio said on Tuesday Washington was wrong to continue holding Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects without trial at its Guantanamo military base in Cuba and again called for the release of a Spanish prisoner there.

“The United States has made a major mistake with Guantanamo,” Ana Palacio told Telecinco television.

US forces have been holding around 600 men from 42 countries at the camp since their capture in Afghanistan in 2001 as suspected “enemy combatants” believed allied to Al Qaeda.

Ana Palacio welcomed Monday’s decision by the US supreme court to hear an appeal lodged by lawyers for the two Australians, two Britons and 12 Kuwaitis held at the camp, challenging US claims that the detainees are outside the jurisdiction of US courts.

“I hope this ruling by the US supreme court opens the way for them to get out of legal limbo,” Ms Palacio said.

The Spanish captive is Hamed Abderrahaman Ahmed, a 29-year-old man from Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in northern Morocco. —AFP