Mohamed, een Ethiopische nationale en vroegere Britse ingezetene, werd gearresteerd in Pakistan in April 2002. Overgebracht naar de bewaring van de V.S., werd hij naar verluidt teruggegeven door De CIA aan Marokko, dat daar in het geheim voor over een jaar wordt vastgehouden, en dat dan voor verscheidene maanden aan een geheim wordt bewogen De CIA detentie plaats in Afghanistan. Hij bracht toen een paar maanden in militaire detentie bij luchtmachtbasis Bagram in Afghanistan door, en werd uiteindelijk gebracht aan De Baai van Guantanamo in September 2004.

Mohamed beweert dat hij brutaal tijdens zijn tijd in geheime detentie werd gemarteld, en dat het bewijsmateriaal dat waarschijnlijk zal gebruikt worden om hem te vervolgen een resultaat van die marteling is. Hij beweert ook dat de Britse overheid informatie heeft die zijn eisen van misbruik steunt.

Vorige week, in een belangrijk vonnis, besliste het Britse Hoge Hof in de gunst van Mohamed. Het vond dat de Britse overheid onder een wettelijke verplichting was om aan het advies van Mohamed de informatie te onthullen het met betrekking tot de verblijfplaats, de behandeling, en de ondervraging van Mohamed tussen April 2002 en Mei 2004 bezit. Het hof benadrukte dat deze informatie „niet slechts noodzakelijk is maar essentieel“ aan Mohamed laadt de defensie tegen militaire commissie.

Terwijl het hof dat plotseling van het opdracht geven van de tot minister van Buitenlandse Zaken wordt tegengehouden om de informatie te overhandigen die - extra tijd toestaat voor de nationale veiligheidsimplicaties van te overwegen onthulling - het de verplichte onthullingskwestie bij zijn hoorzitting deze week zal bereiken.

Van Groot-Brittannië aan Pakistan aan de Gevangenis van Duisternis

Binyam Mohamed kwam aan Groot-Brittannië in 1994, toen hij een student was, nadat hebbend een korte periode in de Verenigde Staten doorbreng. Hij zette in Islam om terwijl in het UK, en in medio-2001 hij het UK voor Pakistan en Afghanistan verliet. Hij beweert dat hij naar het gebied reiste omdat hij een druggewoonte wilde schoppen.

De militaire commissielasten that have been sworn against Mohamed allege that he attended an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, and later received training in building remote-controlled explosive detention devices in Pakistan. While living at an Al Qaeda safe house in Lahore, Pakistan, the charges say, Mohamed allegedly agreed to be sent to the United States to conduct terror operations.

Mohamed was arrested at the Karachi airport on April 10, 2002, as he attempted to leave Pakistan to fly to London. Although he was initially detained in Karachi, he claims that he was interrogated there by US agents. The UK High Court has also confirmed that a British agent visited Mohamed in Pakistani custody on May 17, 2002.

Mohamed claims that he was rendered by the CIA to Morocco in July 2002. There, he claims, he was beaten, repeatedly cut on his genitals, and threatened with rape, electrocution and death. Interrogators reportedly asked him detailed questions about his seven years in London, based on information that his lawyers believe came from British sources.

In late January 2004, Mohamed says, he was sent to Afghanistan, where he was held in a secret CIA prison – called the “Prison of Darkness” – until May 2004. At that point, he was transferred to military detention, first at Bagram air base in Afghanistan, then at Guantanamo, where he remains.

According to the UK High Court, the military commissions case against Mohamed is based on confessions Mohamed made while in military custody – after May 2004 – not on anything he said while being interrogated by the CIA. Mohamed claims, however, that it was the abuse in CIA custody that induced him to confess while in military custody, and so proof of those CIA abuses are crucial to his defense.

Refusal to Disclose

As part of a continuing effort to cover up the CIA’s misdeeds, US officials have refused to provide Mohamed or his lawyers any information whatsoever about his treatment or whereabouts from the time of arrest in April 2002 until he was transferred to Bagram in May 2004. To date, the UK government has similarly refused to provide Mohamed’s lawyers any such information, although it has acknowledged that some documents in its possession might be exculpatory.

In last week’s ruling, the High Court noted that the UK foreign secretary had acknowledged that Mr. Mohamed had established an arguable case that he had been subject to illegal rendition and torture. The court also found that the British security forces had facilitated Mohamed’s interrogations by supplying information and questions to US officials, even while they knew that Mohamed was being held incommunicado in a non-military detention facility overseas.

The court found, in short, that the relationship of the UK government to the US authorities with regard to Mohamed “was far beyond that of a bystander or witness to the alleged wrongdoing.” Because the UK was in some way a participant, not simply an observer, the court held that the UK is legally obligated to provide Mohamed with information relating to his abuse.

Not only did the court deem this information to be “essential” to Mohamed’s ability to adequately defend himself, it emphasized the need for the government to provide the necessary information as soon as is practically possible. The reason for the hurried timing lies in the military commissions’ timetable. At present, military commission charges against Mohamed have been prepared, but the commission’s convening authority has not yet signed off on them. In order to potentially affect the charging decision, Mohamed has an important interest in getting exculpatory information to the convening authority before that decision is made.

The Prospect of Mandatory Disclosure

The UK court decried the fact that the US authorities have failed to provide this potentially exculpatory information to Mohamed’s counsel, particularly since both his counsel are security-cleared. But it recognized, as well, that the United States’ failure is no excuse for Britain’s inaction.

Unless the UK foreign secretary voluntarily provides the relevant documents to Mohamed’s counsel before Wednesday, the High Court will consider ordering disclosure. Such an order, which the court seems presently inclined to grant, would open an important crack in the wall of secrecy that surrounds the CIA’s rendition, detention, and interrogation abuses.

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