British Government Ordered to Release Torture Memo of Guantanamo Detainee

By Brenda Lopez Romero
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America desk

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The British government was compelled to disclose a document that the judge called the “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” of a former Guantanamo Bay inmate while he was in U.S. custody.  David Miliband, the British foreign secretary, said they would not seek to appeal the ruling.

The judge rejected the British government’s argument of harm to intelligence ties with the United States and national security concerns.   News agencies sued for the release of the documents on public-interest grounds and claimed the judgment as a “resounding victory for freedom of speech.”

The judge outlined the British intelligence from the United States regarding Binyam Mohamed, a British resident that was arrested in Pakistan for allegedly being a terrorist plotter.  The techniques used in Mohamed’s interrogation while in U.S. custody included “continuous sleep deprivation,” shackling during questioning, threatened and played on his fears of being “disappeared.”  Mohamed suffered “significant mental stress and suffering” and was kept under suicide watch.

Mohamed is of Ethiopian descent and was arrested on a passport violation in 2002.  He sustains that the CIA took him to Morocco and Afghanistan were he was tortured.  The charges against Mohamed were dropped in October 2008, and in February 2009 Mohamed became the first Guantanamo Bay inmate released by the Obama administration.

Miliband also said British judgment affirmed that intelligence provided by an ally could not be disclosed without that country’s permission indicting that said permission was given by the U.S. court action allowing for similar information to be disclosed.

The summary did not include the more serious torture allegations such as being severely beaten, left in stress positions, and his genitals being sliced with a scalpel during repeated interrogations.  These allegations occurred under U.S. auspices, but the nationalities of the interrogators remain uncertain.

For more information, please see:

The Huffington Post – Memo Confirms ‘Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading’ Treatment Of Guantanamo Detainees – 11 February 2010

The Los Angeles Times – British Ruling Releases Memo on “Inhuman” Treatment of Guantanamo Bay Prisoner – 10 February 2010

Author: Impunity Watch Archive