Revelations in Binyam 'torture' case
Updated on 31 July 2009
MI5 admits one of its officers was in Morocco at the same time former terror suspect Binyam Mohamed claims he was being tortured by the CIA. Andy Davies reports.
Binyam Mohamed, who was later transferred to Guantanamo Bay, accuses the British authorities of colluding in his torture.
It's emerged that an MI5 officer went to Morocco three times during the period a former terror suspect and British resident, says he was tortured there.
The revelation comes in documents released by the High Court in London today, and judges were only given the information after the MI5 agent had already given evidence.
Opposition MPs have demanded clarity from the government on just how involved British intelligence services were in Binyam Mohamed's interrogation.
As the story of Binyam Mohammed continues to unravel, slowly but surely, a compelling historical narrative is emerging of the secret war conducted by Western Intelligence agencies in the last eight years.
At the High Court today, two judges were forced to rewrite part of that narrative - to amend a previous judgment.
Five months ago the Ethopian born Mohamed returned to the UK where he'd once been resident. Flown in from Guantanamo. For nearly seven years he'd been in American custody - a terror suspect accused of involvement in a dirty bomb plot - but one never prosecuted.
His story of extraordinary rendition at the hands of the CIA - via Pakistan, Morocco and the so-called Dark Prison in Afghanistan - is well documented now.
Thanks in part to his legal team forcing MI5 to discuss the case in court.
Last year they got to question one MI5 officer who interviewed Mohamed in 2002 when he was being held in Pakistan.
After Pakistan he has always claimed he was flown to Morocco and tortured by the authorities there on behalf of the CIA - this has never been contested by the British government.
What's now emerged is that the MI5 officer who questioned him in Pakistan was also in Morocco at exactly the same time Mohamed says he was there - once in November 2002 and twice in February 2003. A time when it's known MI5 was supplying personal information on Mohamed to facilitate the CIA's investigations.
The government says it cannot answer that question due to legal reasons; there is currently a police investigation into allegations that MI5 colluded in the reported torture.
But it was made clear today by one senior official that MI5 had no idea Binyam Mohamed was in Morocco at the time their officer was there, the clear implication being that the MI5 man was in Morocco on other counter-terrorist business.
The judges today said they could not assess the significance, if any, of these MI5 visits to Morocco, but the fact that this information has only been disclosed now will raise further questions about just how transparent the government is prepared to be when it comes to revealing the part its played in the story of Binyam Mohamed.
