Binyam Mohamed - Detention Before Being Charged

Detention Before Being Charged

Born in Ethiopia, Mohamed came to the United Kingdom in 1994, where he sought political asylum and lived for seven years with leave to remain while his application was resolved.

In June 2001, Mohamed travelled to Afghanistan for reasons which are in dispute. Mohamed's supporters contend that he had gone to conquer his drug problems and to see Muslim countries "with his own eyes". The British and U.S. authorities contend, and the US Military-appointed Personal Representative's initial interview notes record, that Mohamed admitted receiving paramilitary training in the al Farouq training camp. He admitted to military training, but said that it was to fight in Chechnya, which was not illegal. Mohamed said that he had made false statements while being tortured in Pakistani jails.

On 10 April 2002, Mohamed was arrested at Pakistan's Karachi airport by Pakistani authorities as a suspected terrorist, while attempting to return to the UK under a false passport.

Mohamed contends that he was then subjected to Extraordinary rendition by the United States, and entered a "ghost prison system" run by US intelligence agents in Pakistan, Morocco and Afghanistan; and that while in Morocco, interrogators tortured him by repeatedly using scalpels or razor blades to cut his penis and chest.

On 19 September 2004, Mohamed was taken by U.S. authorities from Bagram airbase in Afghanistan to their military base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. He says that since then he has been "routinely humiliated and abused and constantly lied to". In February 2005 he was placed in Camp V, the harsh "super-maximum" facility where, reports suggest, "uncooperative" detainees are held. He was told that he would be required to testify against other detainees.

Mohamed's British barrister, Clive Stafford Smith, said that Mohamed participated in hunger strikes to protest against the harsh conditions and lack of access to any judicial review. The hunger strike started in July 2005, and resumed in August 2005 because the detainees believed the US authorities failed to keep promises to meet their demands. From a written statement by Mohamed dated 11 August 2005:

The administration promised that if we gave them 10 days, they would bring the prison into compliance with the Geneva conventions. They said this had been approved by Donald Rumsfeld himself in Washington DC. As a result of these promises, we agreed to end the strike on July 28. It is now August 11. They have betrayed our trust (again). Hisham from Tunisia was savagely beaten in his interrogation and they publicly desecrated the Qur'an (again). Saad from Kuwait was ERF'd for refusing to go (again) to interrogation because the female interrogator had sexually humiliated him (again) for 5 hours _ Therefore, the strike must begin again.

On 7 August 2007, he was one of five Guantánamo detainees that British Foreign Secretary David Miliband requested be freed, citing the fact they had all applied for or had been granted refugee status or similar leave to remain in Britain, prior to their capture by US forces.