A letter to Prime Minster Gordon Brown from Binyam Mohamed, a Londoner in Guantánamo
30.05.08
Today, Reprieve, the legal action charity that works on behalf of over 30 prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, releases a letter from British resident and Reprieve client Binyam Mohamed, which was dictated to Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve’s director, during a visit with Mr. Mohamed at Guantánamo last week.
In the letter, delivered to 10 Downing Street yesterday, Mr. Mohamed asks the Prime Minister to step up his efforts to secure his return to the UK. It is expected that Mr. Mohamed will soon be put forward for trial by Military Commission at Guantánamo.
Mr. Mohamed refers to his horrendous experiences in Morocco, where he was sent by US forces to be interrogated by proxy torturers, and in the ‘Dark Prison’, a secret prison run by the CIA near Kabul, Afghanistan. He also refers to the hopes he had last summer, when the British government requested the return of five British residents, and how these hopes were dashed when the US adminstration refused to release him.
His mention of the Treasury Solicitors refers to a lawsuit filed earlier this month by Reprieve and solicitors at Leigh Day & Co., asking the British government to release any potentially exculpatory evidence relating to Mr. Mohamed’s case. The suit was filed after Treasury Solicitors responded to an initial request for this information by claiming that “the UK is under no obligation under international law to assist foreign courts and tribunals in assuring that torture evidence is not admitted,” and adding, “it is HM Government’s position that … evidence held by the UK government that US and Moroccan authorities engaged in torture or rendition cannot be obtained” by Mr. Mohamed’s lawyers.
Binyam Mohamed’s letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Guantánamo Bay
Thursday, May 22nd 2008
Dear Prime Minister Brown,
I have been held without trial by the U.S. for 6 years, 1 month & 12 days. That is 2,234 days (very long days, and often longer nights). Of this, about 550 days were in a torture chamber in Morocco, and about 150 in the “Dark Prison” in Kabul. Still there is no end in sight, no prospect of a fair trial.
Because I am a Londoner, your government states publicly that you support my right to return home there as soon as possible. I am grateful for that. I always viewed Britain as the country that stood up for human rights more than any other. That was why I came to Britain as a refugee.
Before the intervention of your government to help me, I was more resigned to my fate, to be held forever without a fair trial. When your government intervened I had hope. But it has been a cruel hope. Nine months later I am still here, no closer to home, still in this terrible prison.
When I learned that my Moroccan torturers were using information supplied by British intelligence, I felt deeply betrayed. When I learned that your government’s lawyers (the Treasury Solicitors) had told my lawyers they had no duty to help prove my innocence, or even that I had been tortured, I felt betrayed again.
It is long past time to end this matter. I have been next to committing suicide this past while. That would be one way to end it, I suppose.
Binyam Mohamed
22/MAY/08
Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve’s director said :
"We urge the Prime Minster to act on Mr. Mohamed’s behalf as a matter of urgency. Mr. Mohamed has always stated that he is perfectly willing to face any charges that may arise on his return to the UK, but as we are all aware, a fair trial is the last thing that he will receive in a courtroom in Guantánamo Bay."
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