Britain should offer the hand of friendship to the four Guantánamo Bay Uighurs and grant them citizenship, their lawyer said yesterday.

Richard Horseman told The Royal Gazette "At the moment, they are in legal limbo and effectively imprisoned in Bermuda."

The Wakefield Quin partner plans to write to the UK Government to ask for British or Bermudian citizenship for former terror suspects Khalil Mamut, Ablikim Turahun, Salahidin Abdulahad and Abdulla Abdulqadir.

The men, who were brought to Bermuda from the notorious detention camp on June 11 without Britain's permission, revealed last week that they were promised passports after a year on the Island by their lawyers in the States and a US Army general.

>Mr. Horseman confirmed: "Various promises were made by various parties that they would have their passports in about a year."

He added: "Of course, the United States, nor does the Bermuda Government, have the legal right to grant them Bermuda/British passports, only Britain can do so.

>"We know that Britain has been conducting reviews and we are not aware of the outcome of that review as of yet. We do, however, know that the Bermuda Uighurs have been cleared twice in US courts."

He said his clients, to whom he is providing his services free of charge, were happy to be free from Guantánamo after seven years detention.

>But he added: "The time will come when they want to travel and be truly free. We in Bermuda, of course, are well aware of 'rock fever'.

"While Britain is understandably upset in the way in which the transfer happened, without notice to or consultation with the United Kingdom, this was not the fault of the four Uighurs.

"They assumed everything was properly in place.

"They cannot personally be faulted for having been transferred to Bermuda, whatever view one takes on the process that led them here."

Mr. Horseman said a ruling was awaited from the US Supreme Court on whether American judges have the right to release cleared Uighurs from Guantánamo into the States if no other country will take them.

>The lawyer said: "This may have a bearing on the local Uighurs and how Britain chooses to deal with them."

He added: "I would personally appeal to the British authorities on their behalf to grant them rights of citizenship. These men are entitled to be free.

"As far as I am aware, there has been not one documented case of a Uighur having participated in any action against the West.

"These men were purchased by the United States from Pakistan bounty hunters and then transferred to a prison which was set up outside the jurisdiction of the United States, designed to ensure that the US Constitution and the Geneva Convention did not apply to them.

"In my view, they were unlawfully imprisoned for a substantial period of time and the time has come to show them the hand of friendship. Britain should take the lead and grant them citizenship now and we call upon them to do so now."

Governor Sir Richard Gozney said last night: "We are all conscious of the personal circumstances of the four Uighurs sent here from Guantánamo at the invitation of the Bermuda Government.

"No one wishes to see them suffer more than they suffered before coming here. They sound sincere in their appreciation of their liberation."

He added: "As Bermuda's Attorney General has said, Bermuda is in no position to grant them travel documents.

"The United Kingdom only considers granting travel documents to those who apply for refugee status in the United Kingdom, not overseas.

"Citizenship is another matter altogether, and would only become a possibility once someone was no longer subject to the Bermuda Government's immigration rules, and had spent at least five years here."

Premier Ewart Brown said last week he did not expect a decision from Britain on the four Muslim men, who are originally from Chinese Turkestan, until Guantánamo Bay closes next year.

Meanwhile, it was reported yesterday that the White House plans to house up to 100 of the detainees currently being held at Guantánamo in a nearly empty Illinois state prison.