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In a ground breaking ruling in Washington, District Judge Ricardo Urbino has ruled that four former Guantanamo Bay detainees have the right to sue the United States government for violating their right to practice their religion while in detention.

The four, Jamal al-Harith from Manchester, and the so called 'Tipton Three' : Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Ruhel Ahmed, have attempted numerous cases in the American courts involving the abuses that they endured at the detention camp in Cuba, but this is the first significant success in trying to get justice.

The lawsuit is claiming that by being forced to shave off their beards, which is against Islam, and being harassed and ridiculed while they worshipped, they were being denied their right of freedom of religion. They also allege that they witnessed army personnel flushing a copy of the Koran, the Islamic holy book, down a toilet. A Pentagon investigation into the incident was conducted, but they were unable to confirm if the event actually took place.

Judge Urbino said when making the ruling on the case that, "Flushing the Koran down the toilet and forcing Muslims to shave their beards falls comfortably within conduct prohibited from government action." The alleged actions of the US military were in violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as well as parts of the Constitution. Urbino went on during his ruling to say that such behaviour was a "direct affront to one of the nation's most cherished constitutional traditions". US officials tried to argue that since Guantanamo Bay was not a part of the United States, US laws did not apply there. Urbino dismissed such notions by saying that the Act applies the same to US possessions and territories as it does to actions committed on US soil.

All four of the men are British citizens who were arrested in Afghanistan shortly after the United States invasion in 2001. They were released from the detention camp in 2004 after spending the intervening years detained without any charges being laid against them. Mr. Al-Harith is perhaps the unluckiest of the four having first been arrested by the Taliban accused of being a British spy. After the Americans pushed the Taliban from power, Al-Harith was then arrested by the Americans for being a terrorist though charges were never laid against him.

The four men are demanding £3.5 million in damages in the suit that names Donald Rumsfeld and ten other high-ranking military personnel as defendants.