'Tortured' Guantanamo detainee back in UK
Regional-UK, Politics, 2/23/2009

UK resident Binyam Mohamed returned to Britain today after being incarcerated at the US internment camp in Guantanamo Bay for more than four years and allegedly previously tortured by the CIA.

His arrival comes after a London High Court ruling on evidence of how the 30-year old Ethiopian may have been tortured, and what Britain's MI5 security agency knew about it, must remain secret because of serious threats from the US. Binyam's lawyer, Stafford Smith, who is director of Reprieve human rights group, is pressing for the evidence to be released. "He is a victim who has suffered more than any human being should ever suffer," Smith said.

He was originally arrested in Pakistan in 2002, before the CIA secretly flew him to Morocco where he was allegedly brutally tortured. Later he was flown to Afghanistan before being sent to Guantanamo Bay.

In a statement, Binyam said that the worst moment of his captivity was when he realized his alleged torturers were receiving material from UK intelligence agents. "I have to say, more in sadness than in anger, that many have been complicit in my own horrors over the past seven years," he said. "It is still difficult for me to believe that I was abducted, hauled from one country to the next, and tortured in medieval ways -- all orchestrated by the United States government."

Prior to his release, the British resident ended a month-long hunger strike after visits from his lawyers, Foreign Office officials and a UK doctor, who passed him fit to travel.

Previously the British government insisted that it was not responsible for residents held in Guantanamo Bay, but on Sunday Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said Binyam would be allowed "temporary admission" into the UK.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who is under pressure to release the evidence about his alleged torture, said his release was the first step towards the goal of closing Guantanamo Bay.

Previous Stories:
  Obama speaks of American partnership in Middle East   (1/28/2009)
  Europeans consider taking in Guantanamo inmates   (12/24/2008)
  Prisoners held without charges or trial in US Guantanamo get support by UK protesters   (1/15/2008)

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