Doctors have condemned the Government's failure to provide medical aid to Omar Deghayes and other prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.

In an open letter 120 senior doctors have called for an independent investigation into medical needs of British residents in Camp Delta.

Mr Deghayes, 37, from Saltdean, has been partially blinded after wardens repeatedly sprayed him in the face with pepper spray, according to his lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith.

Now doctors have criticised the "shameful" refusal of the Foreign Office to respond to a request by the British Medical Association (BMA) to send their own doctors to Cuba.

They said they feared the medical treatment offered by the US military in the detention camp would "warrant a criminal investigation if carried out in Britain".

Mr Deghayes fled to Sussex with his family when his father was assassinated in Libya.

He has been held in Guantanamo Bay for more than four years without charge.

His brother Abubaker Deghayes, who runs the Al Quds mosque in Dyke Road, Brighton, said he was now desperate British doctors should be allowed to see him.

He said: "He needs medical help urgently. We knew from day one when his lawyer saw him that he has been blinded in one eye and he has refused assistance from the Americans because he doesn't trust them. That was three years ago.

"We desperately need the doctors to go. People like them and the campaigners to free Omar are our only hope - the people that do still care."

About 460 prisoners from 35 countries are held in Guantanamo Bay, almost all without charge.

Mr Deghayes is among at least eight British residents the Government has refused to help.

The letter also criticised the failure of the Foreign Office's medical and legal panels to discuss the plight of the detainees on the grounds they are not British passport holders.

It said: "Our Government's excuse is that it does not wish to set a precedent to act for British residents, rather than British citizens.

We find this morally repugnant.

"The Foreign Office can and does act differently when circumstances suit, for example seeking to overturn a death sentence on an Afghan Christian convert, Abdul Rahman.

"Yet it feels unable to take any action for UK residents held illegally in Guantanamo."

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said the Government was not in a position to provide "consular or diplomatic assistance" to British residents in Camp Delta.

But he added: "We have made it clear that Guantanamo Bay should come to an end."

None of Camp Delta's prisoners has been examined by independent doctors.

Concern for the mental health of the detainees was further highlighted when three allegedly committed suicide in June