Torture row

The Government is under pressure to respond to claims that MI5 tortured a UK resident currently imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. In a scathing attack, two senior High Court judges have accused the US of threatening to end intelligence co-operation with Britain if evidence is published about the alleged treatment of Binyam Mohamed, who is being held in the Cuban prison. The UK was warned by the US it could face increased danger if Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones defied authorities and released full details in the case of the 30-year-old Ethiopian Muslim convert. Lawyers for Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the threat had existed for some time and is still in place under President Barack Obama's new administration. The judges quoted the lawyers as saying the US government, by reviewing intelligence co-operation, "could inflict on the citizens of the United Kingdom a very considerable increase in the dangers they face at a time when a serious terrorist threat still pertains". Mohamed lived in west London before being arrested in Pakistan in 2002. He was accused of training at al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, joining a squad of bomb-makers in Pakistan and plotting to set off a radioactive device in the US. He has been on hunger strike since January 5 in protest at being left in limbo over his fate. In October, the Pentagon official overseeing the Guantanamo warcrimes court dismissed all charges against Mohamed, who says he falsely confessed to the "dirty bomb" plot while being tortured in a Moroccan prison. Speaking in the Commons, Tory politician David Davis called for the Government to make a statement "on the involvement of British agents in torture, torture overseas and the right the United States government has to block a British court from disclosing information given to it." Human rights lawyers Reprieve said another three British residents are also being held at Guantanamo, which is set to close within a year. They are Shaker Aamer, Ahmed Belbacha and Saiid Farhi.

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ITN | February 4, 2009

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