LONDON: A man detained in Britain without charge or trial for two years on the basis of secret evidence he can neither know about nor challenge has told of his despair at his treatment under British anti-terrorist legislation.

Exactly two years after he was arrested at his family home in the early hours and taken to Belmarsh high-security prison, London, Mahmoud Abu Rideh is the first of 14 detainees held on suspicion of terrorism to speak out publicly, through a letter sent to the London- based Guardian newspaper. In it, he tells of his horror at his arrest, his humiliation in prison and the deterioration of his mental health. He has now been moved to the high-security Broadmoor psychiatric hospital, west of London.

The UK home secretary, David Blunkett, says the detainees are all suspected international terrorists with links to Al Qaeda or related groups and that the British anti-terrorist legislation under which they are held, passed in the wake of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, is essential to safeguard the public.

Human rights groups, however, have condemned detentions based on secret evidence without a criminal trial. On Thursday, the privy counsellors review committee, a cross-party group of members of the British parliament (MPs) set up by Mr Blunkett which spent 18 months reviewing the act, called for it to be scrapped.

Mr Blunkett alleges Mr Abu Rideh has been involved with associates of Osama bin Laden and was a fundraiser for terrorist purposes, allegations which he denies. Mr Abu Rideh, a Palestinian, says in his letter to the Guardian that he hates terrorism. “I tell you that terrorism produces terrorism — the terrorism of the state and the terrorism of the terrorist groups or individuals is not in any religion, Christianity, Islam, Judaism. I hate terrorism from countries and groups. I want peace to spread all over the world, especially in Palestine. I am in exile. I want to go back home and live in peace.”

He says he was arrested without warning or explanation at his home in Surrey, south of London, on Dec 17, 2001, two months after the World Trade Centre attacks.

“The British security services arrested me at 5.30 in the morning. They broke the door while I am sleeping and scared my children — I have five children between the ages of three years and nine years.” He was taken straight to Belmarsh prison in south-east London, with no access to a lawyer.

“At 7 o’clock in the morning they told me that you are going to stay all your life in Belmarsh. There is a unit inside it, it is like a prison in the prison. They put me alone in a small room where you face bad treatment and racism and humiliation and biting and swearing.

“They prevented us from going to Friday prayers and every 24 hours there is only one hour walk in front of the cells and half an hour walking inside a cage. You do not see sun. You can not tell whether it is night or day. Every thing is dark.”

Mr Abu Rideh claims his experiences since his arrest are an indictment of Britain. “Is this the civilization of London? Is this Europe civilization in the 21st century? I stayed in Belmarsh for 40 days without being able to call my family.” It was a month before he was allowed to call a lawyer and six months before he saw his wife and children.

Seventeen men have been detained under British emergency measures passed since September 11. The introduction of the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act meant that Britain had to suspend its obligations under the European human rights convention, which guarantees the right to liberty. The act covers only foreign nationals and allows the UK home secretary to detain them in high- security prisons indefinitely. The detainees have the right to leave the UK at any time. Two have done so and are fighting an appeal from abroad. One has been removed from the UK under other legislation.

Others are refugees or asylum seekers and the government acknowledges it cannot deport them because they could be in danger in their home country. Lawyers for 10 of the men have lodged appeals against their detention. In October, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission upheld the home secretary’s decision to detain them after hearings where much of the evidence was given in private.

Mr Abu Rideh, who lived in Pakistan and Afghanistan after leaving Palestine, was well known in the Muslim community for his charitable activities, including setting up schools and digging wells, which may have led him into contact with extremists. But, say his lawyers, his voluble personality meant he was open about his work and the people he met.

He had a history of mental illness before he was arrested. In his Guardian letter he says that in Belmarsh “my mental health became worse and worse and they moved me to (Broadmoor) where they put the most dangerous criminals in Britain — people who commit crimes like murder and rape of children”.

Amnesty International’s UK director, Kate Allen, said on Firday: “The (UK) home secretary has created something close to a Guantanamo Bay in our own backyard.” The cases of Mr Abu Rideh and the other 13 detainees were in defiance of basic human rights.

A spokeswoman for the British Home Office said she could not comment, but said the detainees would be held under the same conditions as all other Belmarsh prisoners. Family and friends can visit once security checks have been carried out or earlier if they are willing to undergo “a high level of supervision”. Friday prayers were offered to Muslims. —Dawn/The Guardian News Service.