Binyam Mohamed launches legal fight to stop US destroying torture images »

Posted By berkeley 4 months ago in Political News
Prop it 17 2 drops Drop it

Former Guantánamo detainee Binyam Mohamed has launched an urgent legal attempt to prevent the US courts from destroying crucial evidence that he says proves he was abused while being held at the detention camp, the Guardian has learned. The evidence is said to consist of a photograph of Mohamed, a British resident, taken after he was severely beaten by guards at the US navy base in Cuba.

The image, now held by the Pentagon, had been put on his cell door, he says.

Read Full Story at guardian.co.uk »

92 Views Share Story 4 Comments Report

Submitted By:
berkeley

If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. Of all the enemies to public ...

Who Also Submitted:
Other Related Articles:

RSS Join the Discussion

+ Add Comment
Comments So Far: 4 (view all)
- Display
  • 100%
    gamahuche4 months ago

    This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »

    FTA
    The US government considered the case closed once Mohamed was released and returned to Britain in February. The photograph will be destroyed within 30 days of his case being dismissed by the American courts – a decision on which is due to be taken by a judge imminently, Clive Stafford Smith, Mohamed's British lawyer and director of Reprieve, the legal charity, said today .

    Under US law, evidence relating to dismissed cases must be automatically destroyed. The only way to preserve the photograph is to have it accepted as a court document.

    This is the aim of Mohamed's appeal and he says he needs the image as a crucial piece of evidence to fight his case against US authorities for unlawful incarceration and abuse. "That is one piece of physical evidence that I know exists of my abuse," he says in the statement, adding that it was taken in Guantánamo in 2006. After being kicked and punched, he says his guards "applied force to a pressure point on my arm, twisting the handcuffs up ... They tried to open my closed fists up by bending my fingers back one at a time." They took a picture of him when, he says, he was on the floor pinioned by the guards. He continues: "They then slammed me and my Qur'an into the fence." After he objected, he says, they "slammed me into the fence again".

    He adds: "They then strapped me into a restraint chair and cut off half my beard. They then performed the humiliating 'anal cavity search', although it was painfully obvious that there was nothing to find."

    Mohamed also describes how at one point he screamed and that this "made them redouble their efforts and my situation got worse".

    He adds: "One [military guard] took the heel of my hand and pushed my nose up violently. One soldier pulled on my jaw. They slammed my forehead down on the concrete floor. One grabbed my testicles and punched me."

    (comment_max_expanded_depth : 2) (comment depth : 2) (recursion depth : 1) (max_comment_reply_depth : 40) (comment_max_render_depth : 3)
    Reply
    loading loading ...
    • 0%
      BB644 months ago

      This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »

      I agree. We need to show all horrors of AlQueda. Show the censored films from 9-11 and the people all jumping to avoid the fires. Show the filmed beheadings or videos of our troops captured and killed by them. Show how the bodies are all booby- trapped so when medics arrive, they're killed too. How about showing the prisons in Afghanistan and Iraq before we got there. Everyone whines about the prisoners being lead around naked by a few troops. Why not show off Saddam's rape rooms? Why not show off his video taped records of those he had killed. Both sons maintained their own collections. How about the Saudi executions? How about the Iranian stonings, they're real pretty.... Explain the methods used in their hangings too. Short drop so the prisoner's neck isn't broken, increasing suffering. Then again, the raping of women in the event they're virgins, can't have that it's against some Islamic law or other. Then again, why not show off some of the Taliban work. The mass hangings at the old soccer fields always told me the barbarism that is Islam.

      So are you really sure you want to compare being kept in a cold room or fed low carb diets as torture?

      (comment_max_expanded_depth : 2) (comment depth : 2) (recursion depth : 1) (max_comment_reply_depth : 40) (comment_max_render_depth : 3)
      Reply

      2 Replies

      loading loading ...
    View All 4 Comments

    Add a Comment

    Sign In With Your Propeller Account

    Forgot your password?

    Please keep your comments relevant to this story.

    To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

    Submit a Story

    Advertisement

    Story Tags ?

    war_crimes torture binyam_mohamed guantanamo britain

    Hey! If you Sign In, you can add tags to this story!

    Also Dropping This Article

    view all »

    Groups Watching This

    No groups are watching this story. Why not share it with your groups?

    Also Submitted By

    No one else has submitted this story.