Judges: 'US government backing
allegations it tortured British Guantanamo detainee'
The US government is backing-up allegations that it
tortured a British resident at Guantanamo Bay by refusing
to hand over crucial documents, High Court judges
said yesterday.
By Duncan Gardham
Telegraph.co.uk , October 23, 2008
go to original
See Article I.3 Promoting
Torture
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Binyam Mohamed wants access to documents
held by the British Government
Source: PA, Telegraph
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Its actions support allegations by Binyam Mohamed's
lawyers that "torturers do not readily hand over
evidence of their conduct" the judges said.
Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones admitted
to being "deeply disturbed" by recent events
in Mr Mohamed's legal battle to prove that he was
tortured into confessing.
They referred to "delays and unexplained changes
of course which have taken place on the part of the
United States government".
The "grave allegations" being made in the
case of Mr Mohamed, an Ethiopian formerly living in
London, called for a detailed explanation from the
Americans, the judges said.
Mr Mohamed wants access to documents held by the
British Government he believes support his claim that
he was subjected to extraordinary rendition and ill-treatment.
He was facing the death penalty for plotting a radioactive
"dirty bomb" attack on high-rise apartment
buildings in the US but the charges have recently
been varied.
Mr Mohamed was detained at Karachi airport in Pakistan
on his way to the US via London where he was allegedly
planning the attacks.
But he claims confessions being used against him
in a military commission are inadmissible because
they were obtained as a result of a two-year period
of incommunicado detention during which he was subjected
inhuman treatment at the hands of the Pakistani authorities.
The former cleaner from Kensington, West London,
also alleges he was repeatedly slashed in the genitals
with a razor blade after being moved to Morocco.
The British government asked for the release of Mr
Mohamed and four other British residents who were
not citizens in August last year but Mr Mohamed was
formally charged in June this year.
The High Court ruled in August that MI5 colluded
with Mr Mohamed's interrogation although judges agreed
they were right to be interested in him because he
was "a serious potential threat to the national
security of the United Kingdom."
Yesterday the judges said the documents he wanted
disclosed to his legal team were essential to his
defence and did "lend some independent support"
to parts of his case about how he came to confess.
Now in detention for more than six-and-a-half years
without trial, with his mental health deteriorating,
his lawyers are seeking access to a total of 42 documents.
They argue that the US is deliberately seeking to
avoid disclosure of the documents, and the English
court should hand them over instead. Seven have been
disclosed, but in a "heavily redacted" form.
Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones ordered
a stay on their latest hearing to await further developments
in the US courts.
After the judgment, Clive Stafford Smith, director
of legal action charity Reprieve, said: "The
American treatment of Binyam Mohamed has been a litany
of misconduct.
"First they tortured him, then they held him
for more than six years without trial, now they want
to cover up evidence that could set him free.
"What is the point of a 'special relationship'
if the UK Government cannot secure basic justice for
Mr Mohamed?"
