Ministers must step in and protest against military trials due to take place at Guantanamo Bay, Amnesty International said today.

The human rights group urged British politicians to take action against the controversial camp which holds about 370 men suspected of being "enemy combatants".

"Military commission" tribunals due to begin on Monday at the US military prison in Cuba would be a "a travesty of justice", the organisation said.

Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen said: "After more than five years of holding hundreds of prisoners in a virtual legal vacuum the US authorities are now adding insult to injury by pressing ahead with grossly unfair trials.

"Military commissions are a complete travesty of justice - no more, no less.

"We want to see the US government abandon these shabby show trials and transfer Guantanamo cases to proper civilian federal courts on the US mainland."

She added: "Recently we've begun to hear relatively strong criticism from the UK Government about the 'affront to democracy' that Guantanamo represents.

"Now we want to see that backed by action.

"Tony Blair and other ministers should step in - not just in terms of making it abundantly clear that Guantanamo's trials are a travesty of justice, but also by calling for UK residents held at Guantanamo to be given fair trials or immediately released."

The trials will be run wholly by the US military, and will allow evidence obtained under duress and from secret detention centres.

The Guantanamo tribunals can impose the death penalty, with only limited means of appeal, Amnesty added.

So-called "enemy combatants" can be detained indefinitely even if the trial finds the defendant innocent.

Australian national David Hicks is due to be arraigned on Monday.

Guantanamo holds at least eight men with UK residency rights - meaning they have successfully won asylum in the UK but have not become British citizens.

They include 37-year-old old Brighton resident Omar Deghayes, who has been held for more than four years without charge after being detained in Pakistan in 2002.

His sister Amani Deghayes said: "It's frightening that my brother's ordeal at Guantanamo could now include a sham trial before an unfair military court.

"The family has always said that we're not looking for special favours for Omar - only justice.

"We want Omar to get a fair trial or to get his release - and we want the UK Government to stop sitting on its hands and to help him and the other UK residents."

Mr Deghayes' family fled Libya in 1986, six years after his father was assassinated by Colonel Gaddafi's regime - an incident reported by Amnesty International at the time.

In 2005, Mr Deghayes' lawyer, Clive Stafford-Smith, said his client had been blinded in one eye by American military police at Guantanamo Bay.

Last September the Lord Chancellor described Guantanamo as a "shocking ... affront to the principles of democracy".

The Argus is lobbying ministers for a fair trial for Omar Deghayes. Comment on our campaign below.