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British Guantanamo resident wins legal battle to reveal 'torture' evidence
Last updated at 14:06pm on 22.08.08
UK resident Binyam Mohamed says he was slashed with razor blades while being held in Morocco
The last British detainee at Guantanamo Bay has won a ruling which could force the Government to reveal evidence of his alleged torture.
Binyam Mohamed, 30, is facing a military trial for terrorism and could face the death penalty if convicted.
But he claims the charges are based on confessions made under torture.
Yesterday, his lawyers won a High Court ruling that Foreign Secretary David Miliband has a duty to disclose secret documents which they argue would support their case.
Ethiopian-born Mohamed, a former janitor in Kensington, West London, claimed asylum in Britain when he was 16.
He is accused of conspiring with Al
Qaeda leaders to attack civilians. He was detained in Pakistan in April 2002, and says the U.S. then used extraordinary rendition - the practice of secretly moving detainees to states where they might then be tortured - to move him to Morocco.
There, he claims, he was subjected to brutalities including being repeatedly slashed in the genitals with a razor blade.
Trial threat: A U.S. soldier guard a recreation area in Camp 6 at US Naval Base, Guantanamo Bay
Fighter: Clive Stafford Smith
His lawyers said he was kept in North Africa for 18 months and then sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where he has been detained for the past four years.
The U.S. denies he was subjected to torture or extraordinary rendition. In August last year, Mr Miliband formally asked the U.S. government to release him and four other UK residents.
Three of the men were sent back to Britain but the U.S. refused to release Mohamed and Saudi-born Shaker Aamer, whose current status is unknown.
Two High Court judges ruled that the Foreign Secretary did have a duty to ' disclose in confidence' any evidence which could help Mohamed's defence team.
Foreign Office lawyers said such a disclosure could damage national security.
In their ruling, Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones said that British security service had 'facilitated interviews by or on behalf of the United States incommunicado and without access to a lawyer in Pakistan' in 2002.
Reader views (3)
As an American, I am ashamed and appalled at our government - even if this man is a terrorist. Just as Osama bin Laden should receive a fair trial in a court, so should this man.
The American government has lost it's honour.
- Jamie Leisa, USA
The two most commonly abused words in the English dictionary are -
"Human Rights" and "British".
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
So called confessions made directly due to torture must not stand up in any civilised court or in any civilised society no matter what the crime. You either have evidence or you don't, that has been the basis of our legal system since the Magna Carta and even before. If we lose this basic principle then we will eventually lose our freedom and descend into another dark age. The specially trained 'extractors' of information can make anyone admit to anything. I guarantee left alone in a torture chamber for 24 hours with someone who has life or death over you and is unaccountable whatever the outcome, you would sign anything to stop the pain. I have no thoughts on this man but if he was tortured, then any confession should be thrown out.
- Bondy, spain
