Binyam Mohamed: security services aware of treatment

July 31st, 2009

A revised High Court judgment on the case of Binyam Mohamed suggests that British intelligence services were aware of the location and treatment of the Ethiopian-born former Guantanamo inmate during his detention in Morroco. Mohamed claims to have been tortured while imprisoned there.
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Binyam Mohamed: Foreign Office attempts to file ‘secret evidence’

May 1st, 2009

Index on Censorship has learned that government lawyers are attempting to submit secret evidence on the treatment of former Guantanamo prisoner Binyam Mohamed, as the Foreign Office continues to attempt to prevent the release of potentially damning information about his detention.

In a letter to the judges presiding over the case, Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones, the Treasury Solicitor has claimed that a Public Interest Immunity certificate could be necessary for any further evidence submitted by the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband. This would allow the Foreign Office to supply evidence to the court in secret, on a basis not open to challenge or scrutiny.

The government is fighting an application by international media organisations, including Index on Censorship, to obtain the release of seven paragraphs that were redacted from an earlier judgment concerning Mohamed’s treatment at the hands of US officials. The Foreign Office had claimed that any release would endanger future intelligence-sharing arrangements with the US, a claim Mohamed’s lawyer, Dinah Rose QC, has described as ‘seriously misleading’.

Read the government letter here (pdf)

The shame of secrecy

February 6th, 2009

The case of Binyam Mohamed (right) underlines the need for transparency in the justice system, even during a ‘war on terror’, writes Aisha Maniar
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Judges attacks Guantanamo secrecy

February 5th, 2009