Lawyers for a Guantanamo Bay detainee said Wednesday they have filed a lawsuit over the British government's refusal to release documents which they claim prove the inmate was previously tortured and could secure his release from the U.S. prison camp in Cuba.
Ethiopian national Binyam Mohamed, 30, claims that British intelligence agencies hold evidence which prove he was tortured whilst being held for two years in Morocco before his transfer to Guantanamo.
In papers filed to Britain's High Court, lawyers allege that Mohamed had his genitals slashed with a scalpel and was repeatedly beaten whilst being held in the north African country between 2002 and 2004.
Lawyer Clive Stafford Smith said the case against Mohamed rests on evidence obtained as a result of his client's torture.
He said proof that Mohamed was tortured would help prove his innocence and likely force the United States to halt plans to put him on trial before a military commission.
"The British government holds evidence that could be the key to proving his innocence," Stafford Smith said in a statement.
Stafford Smith said Britain has previously refused to confirm whether it holds evidence that proves Mohamed was tortured and has declined to turn over documents related to the case.
Reprieve, the lawyer's legal charity, said on Wednesday that a lawsuit challenging the British government's refusal to supply documents was filed on Tuesday.
Mohamed was captured in Pakistan in 2002 and transferred to Morocco. He was later transferred to a CIA-run prison in Afghanistan and then to the U.S. base in Guantanamo, Cuba.
According to his own account of his detention, his torturers sliced his penis with a scalpel and threatened to sever his private parts. Mohamed said he was beaten, deprived of sleep, given mind-altering drugs and subjected to extremely loud rock music through headphones while handcuffed.
"There was blood all over. They cut all over my private parts. One of them said it would be better just to cut it off, as I would only breed terrorists," Mohamed wrote in part of the account quoted in the legal papers filed Tuesday.
Last year, the U.S. declined a request from the British government to release Mohamed along with three other men who had previously been British residents.
Stafford Smith said U.S. authorities will shortly lay new charges against his client and may seek the death penalty if Mohamed is convicted at a military commission.
Britain's domestic intelligence service MI5, which has carried out hundreds of interviews with U.K. nationals or residents held overseas, said it had no knowledge that Mohamed was tortured in Morocco.
A report in July by the intelligence agency oversight authority, Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee, said an MI5 officer interviewed Mohamed for three hours in Karachi in 2002.
MI5 denied that Mohamed told the officer that he had been warned he was being transferred to Morocco to be tortured.
But, in a private evidence session to the intelligence committee, the then head of MI5 told lawmakers that if the claims were correct "we would regret not seeking proper full assurances at the time."
Eight other ex-Guantanamo detainees have filed lawsuits in London against the British government and security services, accusing them of complicity in their illegal detention and seeking millions of pounds (dollars; euro) in damages.
