Miliband attempt to conceal 'torture' rejected

The "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment of a Guantanamo detainee by United States authorities was revealed yesterday after Foreign Secretary David Miliband failed in his attempt to block the disclosure.

Binyam Mohamed, 31, an Ethiopian granted refugee status in Britain in 1994, claimed he was tortured while being held on suspicion of involvement in terrorism.

Now intelligence information relating to the allegations has been released after three of the country's highest-ranking judges dismissed Mr Miliband's appeal.

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He had hoped to overturn an earlier court ruling that said summaries of information received by the British security services from US intelligence should be disclosed.

The Court of Appeal decision by the Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge, the Master of the Rolls Lord Neuberger, and the President of the Queen's Bench Division Sir Anthony May, related to publication of seven paragraphs, which had to be cut from High Court judgments already handed down.

One of the key paragraphs – which were released after today's decision was announced – stated that the reported treatment by the "United States authorities" of Mr Mohamed "could readily be contended to be at the very least cruel, inhuman and degrading".

Mr Miliband told MPs the ruling was leading to a "great deal of concern" in the US.

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In a statement to the Commons, he said he had fought to prevent the release of the information to defend the "fundamental" principle that intelligence shared with the UK would be protected.

This "control principle" was essential to the relationship between the UK and the US.

Mr Miliband said the case, was being "followed carefully at the highest levels in the US system with a great deal of concern".

The treatment of Mr Mohamed went against British principles but was not carried out by the UK, he said.

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Yesterday's judgment was the latest ruling in long-running proceedings arising out of the case of Mr Mohamed.

He was detained in Pakistan in 2002 on suspicion of involvement in terrorism and then sent to Morocco and Afghanistan. He was sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba in 2004.

Now back in the UK, he is fighting to prove that British authorities helped to facilitate his detention and knew about his ill-treatment in Pakistan.

Lawyers for Mr Mohamed and the British and international media said disclosure was in the public interest. They accused the Government of seeking to suppress evidence of Britain's involvement in torture.

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They said sensitive admissions by the CIA to the British security service over the ill-treatment of Mr Mohamed raised the prospect of both UK and US Governments being exposed to "serious criminal liability for an international war crime".

In the lengthy ruling, the Lord Chief Justice said nothing in it should be seen as devaluing the confidentiality principle.

He said the cut paragraphs would not reveal information of interest to a terrorist or criminal.

Lord Judge said there was no secret about the treatment to which Mr Mohamed was subjected while under US control.

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"We are no longer dealing with the allegations of torture and ill-treatment; they have been established in the judgment of the court, publicly revealed by the judicial processes within the USA itself," he said.

Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague, MP for Richmond, said the ruling upheld the principles of intelligence-sharing between the US and UK.

He added: "The sort of treatment that Binyam Mohamed allegedly suffered over two years is utterly unacceptable. Torture of suspects does not strengthen our national security, it weakens it.

"There is an urgent need to draw a line under this episode and restore British moral authority in the matter of allegations of complicity in torture."