Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Binyam Mohamed, British torture victim in Guantánamo: an update

Andy Worthington | 06.06.2008 02:15 | Guantánamo | Repression | Terror War | London | World

Andy Worthington, author of “The Guantánamo Files”, reports on the latest news about British resident Binyam Mohamed, who has just been put forward for trial by Military Commission at Guantánamo, at the same time that a UK court has made a ruling in his favour regarding his demand that the UK government reveal evidence of what it knew about his rendition to torture.

On Tuesday, the same day that the Pentagon officially filed charges against Guantánamo prisoner and British resident Binyam Mohamed, who will face a trial by Military Commission for “conspiracy” and “providing material support for terrorism,” a UK court approved his request for judicial review, requiring the British government to reveal whatever evidence it holds regarding the British security services’ knowledge of his rendition from Pakistan to Morocco for torture, and details of whatever information was also provided to his Moroccan torturers about his life in Britain.

Mr. Mohamed, 29, who sought asylum in the UK in 1994 and was later granted indefinite leave to remain, travelled to Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2001 to overcome a drug problem that had plagued him in the UK, and, he said, to see Muslim countries “with his own eyes.” Seized in Pakistan in April 2002, as he attempted to fly back to the UK, he spent three months in Pakistani custody, where he was interrogated by agents of the US intelligence services -- and on one occasion by British agents -- and was then rendered to Morocco, where proxy torturers, working on behalf of the US, tortured him horribly in brutal “interrogations,” which regularly involved cutting his penis with a razor blade ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/aug/02/terrorism.humanrights1).

Despite this torture, Mr. Mohamed has stated that his lowest point came when his interrogators questioned him about his life in London, and he realized that they were privy to personal details that could only have been supplied by the British intelligence services. In Guantánamo, Mr. Mohamed explained to his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith of the legal action charity Reprieve ( http://www.reprieve.org.uk/), “The interrogator told me, ‘We have been working with the British, and we have photos of people given to us by MI5. Do you know these?’ … To say that I was disappointed at this moment would be an understatement” ( http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/05/398635.html).

Mr. Mohamed’s torture continued when he was flown to Afghanistan in January 2004, and held at the “Dark Prison,” a secret CIA-run prison near Kabul, which was, effectively, a medieval dungeon with the addition of extremely loud and repetitive music and noise, pumped into the cells 24 hours a day. He was then transferred to the US military prison at Bagram airbase, where the abuse was so severe that several prisoners were killed.

Mr. Mohamed arrived at Guantánamo in September 2004, and was put forward for trial by Military Commission in November 2005. However, after one memorable appearance before a judge, when he held up a hand-written sign declaring that the Commissions were actually “Con-missions,” the entire process was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court in June 2006 -- although it was revived by Congress later in the year.

Last summer, the British government requested Mr. Mohamed’s return to the UK, along with four other British residents ( http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2007/08/07/deals-with-dictators-undermined-by-british-request-for-return-of-five-guantanamo-detainees/), but although three of these men were freed in December, the US administration turned down the request for the return of Mr. Mohamed, evidently because it planned to press charges against him.

Responding to the Pentagon’s announcement, Reprieve issued a press release condemning the charges and highlighting criticisms of the Commission process by senior British officials. It was noted that the British government had denounced the Commissions -- and in fact the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s 2004 Human Rights Annual Report stated, explicitly, that they “would not provide sufficient guarantees of a fair trial according to international standards” -- and that Lord Steyn had described the trials as a “kangaroo court.”

It was also noted that the allegations against Mr. Mohamed “centred on a long-discredited ‘dirty bomb plot,’ in which US citizen Jose Padilla was meant to have planned to explode a nuclear bomb in a US city” ( http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2007/09/04/jose-padilla-more-sinned-against-than-sinning/). Reprieve added that the charges had been discredited within the Bush administration, and were dropped against Mr. Padilla, who “had the benefit of a civilian court.” It was, indeed, no less a figure than Paul Wolfowitz, then the deputy to defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who, in 2002, admitted that “there was not an actual plan” to set off a radioactive device in America, that Mr. Padilla had not begun trying to acquire materials, and that intelligence officials had stated that his research had not gone beyond surfing the internet. Jose Padilla, of course, was also made to suffer horribly despite the absence of an “actual plan” -- and was held in solitary confinement in a US brig for three and a half years until he apparently lost his mind -- but although it was scandalous that his brutal treatment as an “enemy combatant” held without charge or trial on the US mainland was excluded from his trial last year, it was at least appropriate that all mention of the spectral bomb plot had been dropped ( http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2008/01/22/why-jose-padillas-17-year-prison-sentence-should-shock-and-disgust-all-americans/).

Reprieve also explained the significance of Binyam Mohamed’s judicial review. The decision for this to go ahead followed a previous request for intelligence relating to Mr. Mohamed’s case, which was recently turned down by the government’s lawyers on the grounds that “the UK is under no obligation under international law to assist foreign courts and tribunals in assuring that torture evidence is not admitted” and that “it is HM Government’s position that … evidence held by the UK Government that US and Moroccan authorities engaged in torture or rendition cannot be obtained” by the British lawyers who are trying to provide Mr. Mohamed with a fair trial.

Openly critical of the government lawyers’ response, Mr. Justice Saunders approved the judicial review (also demanding that the hearing be “expedited”), and explained, “If it is correct that in the course of an interrogation, in which material supplied by the Defendant [HM Government] was employed, the Claimant [Binyam Mohamed] was tortured, then it is arguable that there is an obligation to disclose material which may assist Claimant in establishing before the American Military Court that he was tortured. Whether the Court should exercise its discretion not to order disclosure can only be determined at a full hearing.”

This is, hopefully, a significant step forward in securing the return of Mr. Mohamed to the UK, where he will happily face any charges laid before him that were not obtained through the use of torture. Otherwise, as it stands at present, the US administration’s determination to press charges against Mr. Mohamed threatens only to lead to a highly visible trial, in one of the world’s most notorious prisons, in which evidence of Mr. Mohamed’s torture threatens to embarrass both the US and UK governments.

Andy is the author of "The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison" ( http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/the-guantanamo-files/).

Andy Worthington
- e-mail: andy@andyworthington.co.uk
- Homepage: http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/

Additions

Take action for Binyam!

06.06.2008 13:48

Campaigners across the country have launched a series of actions to urge the government to bring Binyam back to the UK and stop his "show trial".

Yesterday, members of Brighton Against Guantanamo and the London Guantanamo Campaign, accompanied by a cuddly kangaroo, held a protest outside MI6 and delivered letters to Downing Street calling on the government to release evidence that could see Binyam released.

Tonight, the LGC will continue its protest with its regular Friday demonstration outside McDonald's in Oxford (291b Oxford Street, London, W1C 2DT (nearest tube: Bond Street) - if you're wondering why, check out  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:The_McDonalds_at_Guantanamo.jpg) and will raise awareness about Binyam's plight.

Tomorrow, we are holding a stall outside Ladbroke Grove tube Station at 1-3pm to get letters signed to the PM, petitions signed and to raise awareness in the area Binyam lived and worked in for 7 years.

Join us today or tomorrow and take action in protest of "kangaroo court trials" and the abuse of due process and the rule of law by the American government.

Also, write to/email the PM/FCO/your MP and tell them to take urgent action...a sample letter and more information is provided for you  http://www.guantanamo.org.uk/

Do something!

LGC
mail e-mail: london.gtmo@googlemail.com
- Homepage: http://www.guantanamo.org.uk


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech