US sources claim Scot was freed in exchange deal

Published on Monday 5 July 2004 01:09

Key points

• Britons accused of bombings released under 'secret deal'

• Suspected Saudi terrorists freed from Guantnamo Bay in exchange

• Releases said to 'help Saudi and British governments over war in Iraq'

Key quote

"It happened to serve a beneficial diplomatic purpose, both with the Saudis and the Brits. But we would never have released these people if we had a further need to detain them in the first place." - US official

Story in full SIX Britons and a Belgian accused of carrying out a string of car bombings in Saudi Arabia were released from prison as part of a secret diplomatic deal that saw five suspected Saudi terrorists freed from Guantnamo Bay, according to United States government sources.

Scot Sandy Mitchell, who was arrested along with five other Britons and a Belgian, faced public beheading after he was convicted of being a ringleader of an alleged alcohol bootlegging gang, but has always claimed he was tortured into confessing by the Saudi authorities.

He and the others were released in August last year after being granted clemency by Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd, but US officials said this was part of a deal that saw five Saudis released from the American military base in Guantnamo, Cuba, where suspected al-Qaeda and Taleban members are held, according to a report in the New York Times yesterday.

Mr Mitchell, who is from Kirkintilloch but now lives in Halifax, told The Scotsman that the Belgian, Raf Schyvens, had been told of the behind-the-scenes diplomacy by his Saudi lawyer.

The Foreign Office refused to confirm or deny the reports and a spokesman for the US National Security Council said it had "no recollection" of any link between the release of Saudis from Guantnamo and the release of the British prisoners in Saudi.

The Saudi prisoners were transferred to Riyadh, the capital, in May 2003, three months before Mr Mitchell and the others - William Sampson, a British-Canadian who spent much of his childhood in Scotland but now lives in Penrith, James Cottle from Manchester, Peter Brandon from Cardiff, Les Walker from the Wirral, James Lee, of Penarth in Wales, and Mr Schyvens - were freed.

The releases were designed to help both the Saudi and British governments which were under pressure over the war in Iraq, according to the US officials who were not named in the report. At the time there was no indication of a connection. But a US official with knowledge of the negotiations said: "There is a link. This was two courses that converged and had a mutual attractiveness to them.

"It happened to serve a beneficial diplomatic purpose, both with the Saudis and the Brits. But we would never have released these people if we had a further need to detain them in the first place."

However, several current and former US defence department officials disagreed, saying no Saudis had even been under consideration for release prior to the arrangement being struck.

"It didn’t seem right," said a military official involved in the process. "The green light had not appeared on these guys in the way that it had on others [who were released].

"It was clear that there was a quid pro quo to the deal that we were not aware of."

It is understood the transfer of the Saudis from Guantnamo initially met with objections from the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the US justice department.

The seven men were jailed in 2000 after they were convicted of being involved in a series of car bombings which the Saudis claim were provoked by a turf war among rival bootleg drink gangs.

Briton Christopher Rodway was killed in an explosion in the Saudi capital of Riyadh in November 2000. At the time, the Saudi government was denying that there was a problem with Islamic militants but the explosions continued after the men were arrested and are widely believed to have been the work of terrorist groups.

Mr Mitchell, who, through the British courts, is attempting to sue the deputy governor of the prison where he was held, along with the Saudi interior minister, Prince Muhammad Bin-Nayif Bin-Abd-al-Aziz and two men he says tortured him while he was in detention, said he had been told of the deal by Mr Schyvens earlier this year.

"This doesn’t surprise me. Raf was told a similar story by his lawyer. To me it does have an element of truth considering he got this same information from his lawyer," he said.