Britain: Security Service "facilitated" torture of Guantánamo detainee

Binyam Mohamed has now been incarcerated for nearly six and half years. He was first detained in Pakistan, and then subjected to extraordinary renditionWashingtons euphemism for its programme of organised kidnapping and tortureto Morocco. Here he was held for 18 months while his captors used tortureincluding slicing his genitals with a razorto wring a confession out of him.

He currently faces trial by a US Military Tribunal, charged with conspiring to commit terrorism and providing material support for terrorism in an alleged dirty-bomb plot. He could face the death penalty if found guilty. The judges ruled that the information is not only necessary but essential for his defence.

Human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, Director of Reprieve, who has represented Mohamed since 2005, told the press, This is a momentous decision. Compelling the British government to release information that can prove Mr. Mohameds innocence is one obvious step towards making up for the years of torture that he has suffered. The next step is for the British government to demand an end to the charade against him in Guantánamo Bay, and return him home to Britain.