By IRNA,
London : Lawyers for the only remaining British resident held at the notorious US internment camp in Guantanamo Bay were making a legal challenge Monday for the UK government to provide alleged torture evidence for his defence at a military tribunal.
Binyam Mohamed, who has been in US detention for more than six years, is seeking a judicial review of the government’s refusal to provide information to prove that he was either tortured or innocent of the US charges of conspiracy to build a dirty bomb.
“No official can be allowed to remain silent when asked to explain why the government wants to cover up evidence that could help bring justice to a Londoner held in Guantanamo Bay,” said human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith.
“No matter what the technical arguments that can be made in favour of an injustice, surely the just course of action is obvious here,” said Stafford Smith.
He said his lawyers were not asking anyone merely to accept 30- year old Binyam’s claims, but that “he be given an open trial in which to present them to a fair jury, and that he be allowed access to the evidence with which to prove his case.”
Stafford Smith is founder of Reprieve, a legal action charity, which uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners and promote the rule of law around the world. Its lawyers currently represent over thirty prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay.
Reprieve believes the UK government holds evidence of Binyam being tortured by the CIA during his rendition in Morocco, where he was held before being sent to Guantanamo.
He previously sued the UK government for evidence in its possession but was told by government lawyers that “evidence held by the UK government that US and Moroccan authorities engaged in torture or rendition cannot be obtained” by his lawyers to help defend him.
“The UK is under no obligation under international law to assist foreign courts or tribunals in ensuring that torture evidence is not admitted,” they said.
Reprieve said that the legal challenge was Binyam’s last chance to obtain evidence of his torture in the possession of the UK government.
He now faces the prospect of a “politically motivated, unfair military commission at Guantanamo. These military tribunals have been condemned uniformly by international authorities as a violation of human rights,” it said.
Binyam, who is an Ethiopian national, sought asylum in the UK in 1994. He was the only one of five British residents in Guantanamo that the US refused to be released after requests were made by Foreign Secretary David Miliband.