How fleeing a 'bad crowd' led to a CIA rendition flight and scalpel cuts to his penis

Published on Wednesday 10 February 2010 21:13

BINYAM Mohamed travelled to Pakistan in June 2001 and then to Afghanistan.

He insists he only went to Afghanistan to get away from a "bad crowd" in London who had led him into drug addiction and to see for himself how the Taleban's strict Islamic regime worked.

Mr Mohamed denies allegations of plotting and fighting for the Taleban and says he only made confessions after suffering months of physical and psychological torture.

Pakistani authorities arrested him at Karachi airport in April 2002. He alleges he was tortured by Pakistani agents, who hung him for a week by a leather strap around his wrists so he could barely stand, only allowing him down twice a day to go to the toilet.

His account states two MI5 officers visited him in Pakistan, one of whom told him he would be taken to the Middle East and "tortured by the Arabs".

In July 2002 Mr Mohamed was handed to US agents and flown to Morocco on a secret CIA rendition flight, his lawyers say. Here he was allegedly repeatedly tortured, including having his penis cut with a scalpel.