UK Court: US Should Release Documents Relating to Detainee’s Torture Claim
The British High Court is criticizing the United States for refusing to release documents related to claims of torture by a Guantanamo detainee.
The detainee, Binyam Mohamed, is a British resident who says he was secretly tortured in Pakistan before the United States transferred him to Morocco, where he was also tortured. He is being held at Guantanamo Bay.
The British court said it found “deeply disturbing” the United States’ refusal to turn over the documents, the Guardian reports. The court said the U.S. should address Mohamed’s assertion that “torturers do not readily hand over evidence of their conduct.”
The U.K. court suspended proceedings while a U.S. court considers a plea for disclosure in a habeas proceeding. But the British judges hinted that they may release 42 possibly relevant documents held by the British government if the U.S. court doesn’t act, the Washington Post reports.
Mohamed is one of five Guantanamo terrorism suspects whose cases were delayed after a military prosecutor quit the job because of concerns that exculpatory evidence was not being turned over to the defense.
