Full torture dossier must be revealed, judges rule

Published on Friday 16 October 2009 22:15

FOREIGN Secretary David Mili-band is to appeal against a High Court ruling that United States intelligence material on former Guantanamo Bay inmate Binyam Mohamed be made public.

Mr Miliband said yesterday the government was "deeply disappointed" by the judgment. US authorities have strongly resisted the material's release.

The Foreign Secretary warned that the US may no longer be willing to share intelligence if it feared it might later be disclosed on the orders of a foreign court.

In a statement, he said: "The government is deeply disappointed by the judgment handed down today which concludes that a summary of US intelligence material should be put into the public domain against their wishes. We will be appealing in the strongest possible terms."

Last night, the US government said it was "not pleased" by the court's decision.

US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the information surrounding the alleged treatment of UK citizen Binyam Mohamed was "sensitive" to national security. However, he refused to speculate on what implications the court ruling could have on Anglo-American relationships.

He said: "We're pleased the Foreign Secretary has stated in strong terms that they plan to pursue a vigorous appeal."

When asked his reaction to today's High Court judgment in London, Mr Kelly said: "We are not pleased – and this has nothing to do with due process here."

Mr Mohamed, an Ethiopian, was granted refugee status in Britain in 1994. He was detained in Pakistan in 2002 on suspicion of involvement in terrorism and then "rendered" to Morocco and Afghanistan.

After allegedly being subjected to torture by his US captors, he was sent to Guantanamo Bay in 2004. The government has come under pressure to allow disclosure of material which could indicate how much MI5 and government officials knew about Mr Mohamed.

Mr Mohamed, 31, was still being held at Guantanamo Bay awaiting trial at the time of the court's original judgment in August 2008, but has since been released and returned to the UK.

He is still fighting to prove he was tortured and that UK authorities facilitated his detention and knew of the treatment to which he was subjected.

In yesterday's ruling , Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones said there was "overwhelming" public interest in now disclosing the seven paragraphs of material redacted from their original judgment on the Mohamed case last year.

"As the risk to national security, judged objectively on the evidence, is not a serious one, we should restore the redacted paragraphs to our first judgment," they said.