LONDON, July 1: The mother of a Briton being held at the US Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba won permission on Monday to take the UK government to court for failing to do enough to get legal representation for her son.

Zumrati Juma, acting for her son Feroz Abbasi, wants to force the government to insist that her son be given access to a lawyer and accuses Britain of aiding the United States in unlawfully detaining him.

The Court of Appeal overturned a lower court ruling and granted permission for Juma to have a second full hearing of her case against her son’s detention at Guantanamo Bay and treatment since US troops captured him in Afghanistan.

Abbasi, 22, is one of hundreds of prisoners being held by the United States at the special base on suspicion of being linked to the Taliban after they were captured during the US military campaign in Afghanistan.

His case highlights the tensions the camp has caused between Washington and some of its traditional allies over the conditions the prisoners have been held in and the rights to which they are entitled.

The court had heard that four other British detainees at Guantanamo were expected to lodge similar legal challenges in Britain.

In March, a High Court judge refused permission for a judicial review of Abbasi’s case and said that the challenge sought to involve the court in an area of international relations and foreign policy for which the judicial process was manifestly unsuited.

Juma alleges that her son has been wrongly denied the status of prisoner of war, which would give him protection under the Geneva Conventions, that he has been wrongly interrogated by British security services and that he has been denied legal representation.—Reuters