Legal action by inmates could close Guantanamo

Two test cases before the US Supreme Court challenge the removal by the US Congress of the "habeas corpus" right of detainees under the US constitution to go before a civilian court.

Seth Waxman, a former US government lawyer who is now representing the detainees, told the judges that many of the men had been held for six years without an opportunity to have the allegations against them tested in a US court. He said: "If our law doesn't apply, this is a law-free zone."

But Mr Waxman was asked by the court to provide evidence from American history of circumstances similar to those at Guantanamo Bay where a foreign prisoner was allowed to challenge his detention in the civilian courts.

Solicitor General Paul Clement, representing the US government, said foreigners captured and held outside the United States "have no constitutional rights to petition our courts for a writ of habeas corpus", a judicial determination of the legality of detention.

There has been growing concern about the mental health of many of the detainees, four of whom have committed suicide in the last 18 months. Yesterday it emerged that another detainee had slit his throat with a sharpened fingernail, causing substantial bleeding.