Most recent abuse occurred since President Obama's inauguration, says lawyer
On Monday, Binyam Mohamed will become the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to be released since President Obama took office. His return to Britain – where he was a resident between 1984 and 2002 – will mark the end of a nearly seven-year saga of scandal-ridden U.S. custody.
Mohamed will leave the infamous prison in Cuba a bruised and battered man, a victim of "dozens" of beatings – what "should have been left behind in the middle ages," according to his British lawyer.
Last week, medical examinations revealed ailments stemming from apparent beatings at the hands of the Guantanamo emergency reaction force, "a six-strong team of guards in riot gear who have been the subject of previous abuse allegations," The Guardian reported Sunday.
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Mohamed, 30, was found to be suffering from a litany of physical problems: bruising, organ damage, stomach complaints, malnutrition, sores to his feet and hands, and severe damage to ligaments, according to the British newspaper. And then there are his emotional and psychological problems, worsened by Guantánamo guards' refusal to provide counseling.
"He has been severely beaten," said Lieutenant colonel Yvonne Bradley, Mohamed's US military attorney. "Sometimes I don't like to think about it because my country is behind all this." She said that Mohamed's weight has fallen from 170 lbs to about 125 lbs.
The transfer of Ethiopian-born Mohamed – who staged a 13-day hunger strike this month as efforts to secure his return came to a climax – was only agreed to by Britain and the US on Friday.
Although this week marks the end of more than four years in Guantanamo, Mohamed's final destination is still unclear. He'll be taken to "a secure, secret location" for rehabilitation, and kept under a "voluntary security arrangement" which involves reporting to the authorities, the Guardian reported.
But Britain's Foreign Office has stressed that Mohamed, who now has refugee status, will not necessarily be allowed to remain in the UK for good. "Mr Mohamed's return does not constitute a commitment... that he may remain permanently in the UK," the office said in a statement. His final immigration status will be based on "the facts at the time," British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said Sunday.
Mohamed was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 before being taken to Morocco and Afghanistan, and later to Guantanamo. He was suspected of attending an Al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and of plotting to build a radioactive "dirty bomb," but has never been charged for that.
Instead, in June 2008, the Pentagon announced war crimes against Mohomed, alleging that the electrical engineer conspired with al-Qaeda to launch bomb attacks on apartment buildings and gas stations in the United States.
The charges of a dirty-bomb plot were later dropped -- just as they were against US citizen Jose Padilla, who was held in a military brig without charges for several years. Padilla was later convicted of other terror charges.
The charges against Mohamed, the subject of the Bush Administration's "extraordinary rendition program" after he was arrested in Pakistan, were in part based on Mohamed's admission that he had been reading a magazine story about how to build a nuclear bomb. But that story, called "How to Build an H-Bomb," was satire, a point that apparently did not concern the CIA.
Earlier this month, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband denied the United States had threatened to review intelligence-sharing arrangements with Britain if evidence about alleged torture of Mohamed was released.
He spoke after two British judges called for the British government to release "powerful evidence" provided by US intelligence services about Mohamed's interrogation.
After his rehabilitation, Mohamed is likely to offer testimony that would shed light on the alleged complicity of British intelligence officers in his interrogation and alleged torture, the Guardian reported. Mohamed will "likely" sue the British government and its security services for his illegal detention, abduction, treatment and interrogation, the newspaper said.
