Release torture evidence on Binyam Mohamed says MP
By politics.co.uk staff
The chairman of the Foreign Affairs select committee has said the US must release any information relating to the alleged toture of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed.
Mike Gapes MP told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme any UK involvement would be “a serious stain” on the government.
Mr Mohamed arrived back in the UK yesterday where he immediately renewed claims he was tortured by US agents who suspected him of terrorism and added that UK MI5 officers were complicit in his abuse
Mr Mohamed, 30, return to Britain after being released from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba where he had spent more than four years.
The US authorities had accused him of involvement in a plot to detonate a “dirty bomb” on American soil, but the charges were dropped last October.
Mr Gapes said the British government should be congratulated for working to secure Mr Mohamed’s release.
But he said there must now be greater disclosure about his case to prevent long-term damage to the government and in particular, the reputation of foreign secretary David Miliband.
Mr Miliband was recently accused by two senior judges of bowing to pressure from the US government to keep details of Mr Mohamed’s treatment secret.
“I think the solution here is that the US authorities release that information,” Mr Gapes said.
“I think it is in the public interest… and this information will probably be leaked out at some point or another anyway.
“Let’s get it into the open, let’s also get the attorney general’s report very quickly on whether or not there is a case for legal action against someone working for the British authorities.”
Mr Gapes said Mr Mohamed had made some “very serious allegations” about torture – and UK’s role in it – which must be investigated.
“Our government policy, our national policy, is total opposition to torture, or complicity or collaboration in torture,” he said.
“This, if it’s true, is a very serious stain upon the position that consistently the government has been taking, both publicly and privately, that we do not collaborate or carry out or practice torture.”
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