Net closing in on Britain over torture claims (News Feature)

By Anna Tomforde Aug 4, 2009, 13:28 GMT

   London - The British intelligence officer who repeatedly visited Morocco at exactly the time former Guantanamo inmate Binyam Mohamed claims to have been tortured in the North African country is unlikely to have gone there on a beach holiday.

   The three mystery visits, revealed during a recent court hearing in London, are at the centre of efforts by lawyers and human rights groups to shed light on the role of British intelligence services in the so-called extraordinary rendition of Guantanamo detainees.

   'It seems remarkable that this official could make several visits to Morocco during the time that Binyam Mohamed claims to have been held there, and yet they deny that he was aware of any wrong-doing,' said Chris Huhne, the home affairs spokesman of Britain's Liberal Democrats.

   He called for a full public inquiry into the 'involvement of the British government in the criminal offences of torture and state kidnap.'        Mohamed, a 31-year-old Ethiopian man who was resident in Britain before his arrest in Pakistan in 2002, alleges that he was subjected to torture and 'cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment' by the CIA in both Morocco and Afghanistan, and that British officers were complicit in his torture.

   The case of the tall, bearded Ethiopian, who came to Britain as a teenage refugee in 1994, has become the focal point of legal and human rights efforts to clear up British involvement in the arrest and treatment of terrorism suspects following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US.

   Mohamed, who was released from Guantanamo in February, soon after the inauguration of US President Barack Obama, claims he was severely beaten, subjected to sleep deprivation and had his penis and private parts repeatedly cut with a scalpel.

   At current proceedings before the High Court in London, his lawyers are trying to force the British government to publish details of his treatment so far withheld on the grounds that they would 'threaten' national security and, especially, future intelligence cooperation with the US.

   During a meeting in Washington last week, both US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband reiterated their position that keeping intelligence cooperation secret remained a 'fundamental principle' in relations between the two allies.

   'The issue of intelligence sharing is one which is critically important to our two countries and we both have a stake in ensuring that it continues to the fullest extent possible,' Clinton said.

Meanwhile, lawyers representing Mohamed at the High Court proceedings in London are still hoping that the judges will decide to publish the 'explosive' material relating to his treatment.

   Clive Stafford Smith, a lawyer for Mohamed, said the hearing had shown that British secret services made a 'far greater contribution' to Mohammed's interrogation than they had originally admitted.

   'The question must be how far up in the British government did this sordid truth travel,' said Stafford Smith.

   Further pressure on the government came in a report released by a key parliamentary committee Tuesday, which said that there was now 'a disturbing number of credible allegations' of British complicity in torture.

The government, rejecting an independent inquiry into the allegations, said it did not 'condone' torture which it regarded as 'abhorrent.'

However, Foreign Office minister Ivan Lewis admitted that countries with which Britain cooperated did not always apply the same 'rules and high standards' as British agencies.

   'We can't possibly stop working with those countries in terms of our national interest or the security interest of British citizens,' said Lewis.