LONDON: Britain’s government on Wednesday disclosed once-secret information on the treatment of a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who says he was tortured in US custody, losing a long court battle to keep the material classified.
Judges rejected the government’s claim that revealing the information would damage US-British intelligence cooperation.
The information disclosed is a seven-paragraph summary of US intelligence information given to British spies about former detainee Binyam Mohamed’s treatment during interrogations by the Americans in May 2002.
The paragraphs say Mohamed was subjected to “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by the United States authorities,” including sleep deprivation, shackling and threats resulting in mental stress and suffering.
They conclude that the paragraphs given to the MI5 intelligence service, “made clear to anyone reading them that BM (Mohamed) was being subjected to the treatment that we have described and the effect upon him of that intentional treatment.” British authorities have repeatedly denied complicity in torture.
“The wider point here is that we stand firmly against torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. We don’t condone, collude in or solicit it,” Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s spokesman Simon Lewis told reporters following the decision.
Ethiopia-born Mohamed was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and says he was tortured there and in Morocco before being flown to Guantanamo Bay. He was released without charge last year.
The Wednesday decision upholds an earlier High Court ruling ordering officials to make public the secret seven-paragraph summary of US intelligence files. The Foreign Office appealed that ruling, but said Wednesday it would abide by the ruling and posted the paragraphs on its website.
