HUMAN rights campaigners demanded yesterday that US President Barack Obama live up to his promise to close Guantanamo Bay, six years after he vowed to do so.

An executive order from the White House, signed by the President on January 22 2009, set out plans to close Guantanamo within a year.

But a total of 122 men are still held at the US prison camp without charge or trial today.

Fifty-four of those still detained have been cleared for release, a process involving unanimous agreement by six US federal agencies that a detainee poses no threat to the US.

Among the cleared men is British resident Shaker Aamer, from London, who has been held at the prison without charge or trial for nearly 14 years, despite having been cleared for release by both the Obama and Bush administrations.

Lawyers for Mr Aamer, who has a British wife and four children, the youngest of whom he has never seen, say that he has suffered appalling abuse.

Clive Stafford Smith, Mr Aamer’s lawyer and the director of legal charity Reprieve, said: “Obama must make good on his promise, and close the prison once and for all.”