DIRTY TRICKS

Last Wednesday (4th) the high court ruled that information regarding the torture of Binyam Mohammed, one of the remaining UK Guantánamo detainees, is to remain secret after threats from the US to end intelligence co-operation with Britain. The ruling also states that information about UK involvement in Mohammed’s capture and torture is not to be disclosed.

Clive Stafford Smith, Mohammed’s lawyer and director of Reprieve told SchNEWS that it was ‘horrifying’ that the legal process could be derailed by threats and compared the actions of the US government to the Mafia. He also called the British governments capitulation ‘reprehensible’ and urged them to press the new Obama administration to rectify the situation – something they have yet to do.

Mohammed was captured on the Pakistan border while trying to return to Britain in 2002. A victim of extraordinary rendition, he was held in Pakistan for four months before being taken to Morocco for a further 18. In January ‘04 he was taken a second time, this time to the ‘Dark Prison’ in Afghanistan. After being transferred to Bagram he was then sent to Guantánamo where he has been since September ‘04.

Throughout his incarceration Mohammed has been tortured severely. He was been hung up and beaten, and his genitals cut with a scalpel. During his interrogation the British government supplied information and questions and in Pakistan an MI5 officer joined in. Mohammed was originally charged with planning to plant a ‘dirty bomb’ but this was quickly dropped when it emerged that his ‘confession’ had been obtained by torture. No new charges have since been made.

For the last month Mohammed, who has still been and denied counselling, has been on hunger strike and is suffering greatly. According to his lawyer his situation now is as bad as anything he has been put through. He said “there is no reason for the delay in returning Mohammed to Britain and that he should be home already”.

*Check out: www.cageprisoners.com