An MP is meeting a senior Home Office minister to discuss the case of Guantanamo detainee Omar Deghayes.

Des Turner, MP for Brighton Kemptown, has secured an appointment with Tony McNulty, minister for immigration, citizenship and nationality, today.

Mr McNulty, along with Home Secretary Charles Clarke and Prime Minister Tony Blair, is one of the key players in deciding what Britain should do about Mr Deghayes.

The 36-year-old father and law graduate from Saltdean, who has been imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay without charge for three years, is a Libyan refugee, which has so far meant the Government has refused to help him.

His family fled to the UK in the Eighties after his father was assassinated.

Mr Deghayes does not have a UK passport so is not an official British citizen, despite having lived much of his life and being educated here. Because he does not hold a British passport, the Government has said it is unable to put pressure on the US to put him on trial or release him.

The Argus last month joined the Brighton group Save Omar to launch a campaign to secure justice for Mr Deghayes.

Dr Turner said: "I will certainly be putting the case for the campaign for justice for Omar to Mr McNulty.

"I will be asking him what the Home Office is going to do to help him.

"Only the most awful dictatorships would hold prisoners in the way that detainees are in Guantanamo Bay.

"I am very glad The Argus is campaigning for this. We need to make as much noise as possible."

The Save Omar group has been visiting and writing letters to Dr Turner for months asking him to take action.

Jackie Chase, a leading campaigners, said: "This meeting is fantastic news."