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Binyam Mohamed — the last UK resident in Guantánamo Bay — threatened with death penalty

imc-sheffield | 14.06.2008 20:02 | Guantánamo | Repression | Terror War | Sheffield | World

Binyam Mohamed
Binyam Mohamed


Binyam Mohamed a refugee from Ethiopia, who was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK, was seized in Pakistan and rendered to Morocco where he was held for 18 months and subjected to horrendous torture, which, included, but was not limited to having his penis cut with a razor on a regular basis. After Morocco, Binyam was transferred to Afghanistan, where he endured further torture at the CIA run “Dark Prison”, from there he was moved to Bagram airbase and then finally put on a plane to Guantánamo in September 2004, two and a half years after his ordeal began.

Last December it was reported that Binyam Mohamed was close to suicide and in May he wrote to Gordon Brown and pointed out that "my Moroccan torturers were using information supplied by British intelligence" and he also sued the British government for refusing to provide evidence that may assist in his defence at Guantánamo. This month Reprieve, issued a detailed and devastating report, Human Cargo: Binyam Mohamed and the Rendition Frequent Flier Programme (PDF), which presents compelling evidence of his rendition and torture. Last week the Pentagon officially filed charges against Binyam Mohamed, who will face a trial by Military Commission for “conspiracy” and “providing material support for terrorism”, and a UK court approved his request for judicial review, requiring the British government to reveal whatever evidence it holds regarding the British security services’ knowledge of his rendition from Pakistan to Morocco for torture, and details of whatever information was also provided to his Moroccan torturers about his life in Britain.

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Great footage of London protest for Binyam on www.friction.tv

17.06.2008 16:14

Watch this video of June 15th's London protest for Binyam in Trafalgar Square on www.friction.tv:

 http://friction.tv/ftv_debate.php?debate_id=3404


Watch, leave comments, and start a debate!

Holly@Friction.tv
mail e-mail: holly@friction.tv
- Homepage: http://www.friction.tv


due process...

30.06.2008 10:02

Suspects are not convicts or vice versa and according to the law (as we ought to know it), everyone is innocent until proven guilty (42 days later). Proof of this is the fact that barring one ridiculous conviction at GTMO, no one, in over 6 1/2 years has been convicted of any crime whatsoever. Most of the detainees (around 250 now) have been released and sent home and have not been convicted and tried for anything, by the US or elsewhere.

For normal people, who believe in the rule of law and not the law of the jungle, there's a thing called "due process" - also known as the right to have your day in court. If anyone has a problem with that, perhaps they should be locked away and have the key thrown away indefinitely. See how they like arbitrary detention then.

It might be worth looking a little further at who the real terrorists are, also unconvicted; Binyam and others like him aren't responsible for the murder of millions of Iraqis, Afghans, Africans or a media ban on what's happening in Northern Ireland, nor do they rank among the world's top three arms sellers. The villains and the sickos are closer at hand than you think...sleep tight!

LGC
mail e-mail: london.gtmo@googlemail.com
- Homepage: http://www.guantanamo.org.uk