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UK resident in Guantanamo 'charged'

May 31 2008

UK resident in Guantanamo 'charged'

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By Agencies

Mohamed is the last remaining Guantanamo prison inmate with a right to return to Britain [EPA]
The last remaining British resident to be held in the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba has been charged with terror offences, according to Reprieve, the British legal charity.

The US military's Convening Authority now has 30 days to decide whether to press ahead with the charges against Binyamin Mohamed, the charity said on Saturday.

"Mr Mohamed is indeed being charged, but we are unable to supply further detailed information until the Pentagon officially produces the charge sheet of allegations against him," Reprieve said.

Mohamed denies any wrongdoing, the charity said.

Mohamed was detained in Pakistan in 2002 and is the last remaining Guantanamo detainee with a right to return to the UK.

Last year, three British residents held at the prison in Cuba were allowed to return home and a fourth was transferred to Saudi Arabia.

Held without trial

Clive Stafford Smith, a human rights lawyer and the director of Reprieve, said: "I visited Binyam in Guantanamo just a week ago, and he is in a very bad state.

"Surely the least the British government can do is insist that no British resident be charged in a kangaroo court based on evidence tortured out of him with a razor blade.

"If Binyam's trial by military commission proceeds, all it will produce is evidence not of terrorism, but of torture, which will embarrass both the British and the American governments."

Mohamed has written to Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, to plead for help in securing his release, the British daily Independent reported on Friday.

Death penalty fears

Mohamed said he had considered suicide as a way of ending his ordeal and said he fears he could face the death penalty if convicted of terror offences.

"I have been held without trial by the US for six years, one month and 12 days," he wrote.

"Still there is no end in sight, no prospect for a fair trial."

Mohamed was born in Ethiopia in 1978 and came to Britain as an asylum seeker in 1994 aged 16.

His lawyers say he developed a drug habit while living in London and travelled to Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2001 in a bid to resolve his personal problems.