by Guy Jackson
Binyam Mohamed was threatened and subjected to sleep deprivation
Secret British files reveal US abuse of detainee
A former Guantanamo Bay inmate was shackled and warned he would "disappear" if he refused to cooperate with US interrogators, according to details released Wednesday after a lengthy court battle.
The British government published seven paragraphs concerning the treatment of Binyam Mohamed after Foreign Secretary David Miliband lost his appeal court bid to prevent senior judges disclosing the previously secret information.
Britain has repeatedly warned that the release of the information could endanger its intelligence-sharing relationship with the US authorities and has fought for months to block its disclosure.
But High Court judges ruled there was "overwhelming" public interest in publishing the material and that the risk to national security was "not a serious one".
The judges said the content of the seven-paragraph summary, which described Mohamed's treatment as "cruel, inhuman and degrading" was already in the public domain following a decision in December by a US court in another case.
The information concerns what the CIA told British intelligence officials about "interviews" with Mohamed in Pakistan in 2002, two years before he was taken to Guantanamo.
One paragraph reads: "It was reported that at some stage during that further interview process by the United States authorities, BM had been intentionally subjected to continuous sleep deprivation.
"The effects of the sleep deprivation were carefully observed.
"It was reported that combined with the sleep deprivation, threats and inducements were made to him. His fears of being removed from United States custody and 'disappearing' were played upon."
The summary also reads: "It was reported that the stress brought about by these deliberate tactics was increased by him being shackled in his interviews."
Miliband said however that Britain had "no information" to corroborate Mohamed's allegations that he had also been subjected to genital mutilation.
He also disclosed that police were investigating allegations of criminal actions by a British official linked to the case.
Ethiopian-born Mohamed, 31, was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 while trying to return to Britain and spent six and a half years either in US custody or that of countries taking part in the US-run rendition programme of terror suspects.
He claims that while in US custody in Morocco he was questioned using information which could only have come from the British intelligence service.
After a lengthy campaign orchestrated by his supporters in Britain, he became the first prisoner to be released from the US-run Guantanamo camp under President Barack Obama and returned to Britain in February last year.
He come to Britain in 1994 seeking political asylum and lived in London.
Miliband told lawmakers he "accepted" the court's judgement, but insisted that Britain's intelligence-sharing relationship with the US had been at stake in the legal battle, not the content of the summary.
The British minister said he spoke to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, ahead of the judgement.
"We will work carefully with the US in the weeks ahead to discuss the judgement and its implications in the light of our shared goals and commitments," he added.
Miliband said the mistreatment or torture of prisoners "violates the most basic principles of this country, never mind our national and international legal obligations."
AFP
