Guantanamo detainee wins ruling

Two judges in the High Court in London said they concluded that the Foreign Secretary was under a duty to "disclose in confidence" to Binyam Mohamed's legal advisers in Guantanamo Bay certain information relating specifically to him and "which is not only necessary but essential for his defence".

Mohamed, 30, is facing US military trial and possibly the death penalty if found guilty.

His lawyers went to court seeking disclosure of material he says will help defend the charges he faces, which he alleges are based on confessions extracted by torture and ill-treatment.

Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones were told during a recent hearing that the US authorities denied Mohamed had been subjected to extraordinary rendition or torture.

Mohamed's lawyers said that in a "powerful" judgment the court "has held that the UK Government is under a duty to disclose evidence which it holds about the treatment of Binyam Mohamed between his detention by Pakistani authorities in April 2002 and his subsequent reappearance in Bagram Air Base in July 2004".

A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said in a statement after the announcement: "We are considering the implications of this judgment very carefully. We have never contested that Mr Mohamed's defence lawyers should have access to information which would assist him in his defence in any trial at Guantanamo Bay.

"The court recognised the strenuous efforts that we have made to assist Mr Mohamed in Guantanamo Bay, including efforts to ensure that the information HMG holds, which relates to a small part of Mr Mohamed's account of what happened to him, is made available to him for purposes of his defence in any prosecution in the US system.

"For strong reasons of national security, to which the court accepted we were entitled to give the highest weight, we could not agree to disclose this information voluntarily.

"These and other issues relating to national security will be considered at a further hearing next week."