Binyam Mohamed - Accusations of Abusive Incarceration and UK Complicity

Accusations of Abusive Incarceration and UK Complicity

In December 2005 the declassification of his lawyer's notes permitted further claims of abusive interrogation to be made public. Mohamed's further claims included that he was transported to a black site known as "the dark prison", where captives were permanently chained to the wall, kept in constant darkness, and constantly bombarded with "The Real Slim Shady " by Eminem for 20 days

On 21 June 2008 the New York Times reported that the UK Government had sent a letter to Clive Stafford Smith, confirming that it had information about Binyam Mohamed's allegations of abuse.

On Monday 28 July 2008 his lawyers filed a petition in an UK court that the Foreign Office should be compelled to turn over the evidence of Binyam Mohamed's abuse. They also filed a petition with the Irish government for the records of his illegal transport over Ireland. On 21 August 2008, the High Court of the United Kingdom found in his favour, ruling that the Foreign Office should disclose this material. The judges said of the information that it was "not only necessary but essential for his defence".

Although the documents were disclosed to Mohamed's legal counsel as ordered, they were not released to the general public, and a later examination by the High Court found in favour of the Foreign Secretary not to force their publication. The reasons given were that — even if it was unreasonable for it to affect international relations — if the Foreign Secretary thought it was going to harm the special intelligence relationship with the United States, it would not be in the public interest.

In February 2009, CBC News reported that Mohamed had described being warned to cooperate by two women, who represented themselves as Canadians. Each woman met represented herself as a third-party intervener, who warned him that she thought he should co-operate, and answer the American's questions fully, or he was likely to be tortured. According to the CBC report, Canada had an obligation to object if it were determined that the Americans had falsely represented US security officials as Canadians, as a ploy to trick Mohamed into confessing.