LONDON (AFP) — A British resident held at Guantanamo Bay won a court ruling Thursday that Britain must disclose material he believes supports his claim that evidence against him was obtained by torture.
Binyam Mohamed, 30, an Ethiopian national being held at the US detention camp on Cuba, is facing a US military trial and possibly the death penalty if found guilty on terrorism charges.
Two judges at London's High Court concluded that Foreign Secretary David Miliband was under a duty to "disclose in confidence" to Mohamed's legal advisers in Guantanamo Bay certain information relating to him "which is not only necessary but essential for his defence."
Mohamed, who was detained in Pakistan in 2002, is the last remaining Guantanamo detainee with a right to return to Britain. He has spent the last four years detained at the US naval base Guantanamo Bay.
The charges against him are, he alleges, based on confessions extracted under torture. He claims his genitals were repeatedly slashed with a razor blade while being held in Morocco.
Mohamed's lawyers went to court seeking the disclosure of material he says will help defend the charges.
Clive Stafford Smith, director of the legal action charity Reprieve, who has represented Mohamed since 2005, called it a "momentous decision."
"Compelling the British government to release information that can prove Mr. Mohamed's innocence is one obvious step towards making up for the years of torture that he has suffered," he said in a statement.
"The next step is for the British government to demand an end to the charade against him in Guantanamo Bay, and return him home to Britain."
Mohamed was born in Ethiopia in 1978 and came to Britain as an asylum seeker in 1994 aged 16. He worked as a caretaker in London.
His lawyers say he developed a drug habit while living in the British capital and travelled to Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2001 in a bid to resolve his personal problems.
Mohamed claims that of the six years he has spent in US custody, more than one year was spent in a torture chamber in Morocco, and another five months in Afghanistan.
His lawyer Richard Stein said: "Today's judgment reflects the abhorrence of decent society at the methods employed by the United States' government in the supposed 'war on terror'.
"We can only hope that the foreign secretary will now reflect on this judgment and provide direct assistance to Binyam's defence team."
Following the ruling, a Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are considering the implications of this judgement very carefully."
"We have never contested that Mr Mohamed's defence lawyers should have access to information which would assist him in his defence in any trial at Guantanamo Bay."
Jennifer Daskal, senior counter-terrorism counsel at New York-based Human Rights Watch called on Miliband to "immediately disclose to Mohamed's lawyers any and all evidence it has about his interrogation and detention."
"It is outrageous that Binyam Mohamed, who is being held and charged by the United States, has to go to a British court to get potentially exculpatory information about his treatment," she said.
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