The case of Binyam Mohamed is a national disgrace. Binyam faces trial before the Military Commissions at Guantamo, which all fair-minded people regard as kangaroo courts. The US administration is desperately trying to wangle a few convictions in order to justify keeping suspects locked up for years and torturing them at Guantamo Bay. Binyam faces the death penalty, but his defence has a problem. They cannot procure the evidence that could save him. The US government refuses to release the documents.

The High Court judges sharply criticised this refusal. “Torturers do not readily hand over evidence of their conduct,” they pointed out. They went on to argue that the documents being withheld are, “The only independent evidence” that can aid his defence. Suppressing them, they argue, “Would be to deny him the opportunity of timely justice in respect of the charges against him.” This goes back, “At least to the time of Magna Carta and which is a basic part of our common law and democratic values.” Foreign Secretary Miliband has made it clear he doesn’t give a stuff for ‘our democratic values’. He is part of the cover-up.

Of course, most of the evidence against Binyam consists of his confessions. His lawyers say, “Such evidence will be central to the defence of Mr. Mohamed because any evidence obtained as a result of torture is inadmissible.” So, is it? The British government has been given access to Binyam’s medical records from Guantamo, which should supply the answer. They refuse to release these to his defence lawyers.

Binyam Mohamed lived in London as a refugee from 1994 to 2001. He then went to Afghanistan, and then Pakistan, where he was picked up as a terrorist suspect. Held incommunicado in Pakistan, he was questioned for a time by a British agent. He was the object of rendition to Morocco, where he was tortured. Among other things his penis was slashed with a razor. From the close questioning he received about his years in Britain, it was clear that British intelligence was co-operating with his interrogation. Binyam takes up the story. “Today I was questioned about my links with Britain. The interrogator told me, ‘We have been working with the British, and we have photos of people given to us by MI5. Do you know these?’ I realized that the British were sending questions to the Moroccans. I was at first surprised that the Brits were siding with the Americans. I sought asylum in Britain rather than America because it’s known as the one country that has laws that it follows. To say that I was disappointed at this moment would be an understatement.”

Though the British agents didn’t wield the razor themselves, they knew exactly how the confessions were to be procured. Binyam was then moved to a ‘dark prison’ in Kabul, where he was kept chained against a wall in total darkness and bombarded with ear-splitting sounds. Finally in 1994 he ended up in Guantanamo.

Miliband is co-operating in the suppression of evidence that could save Binyam. In effect he is conniving at torture. The US government is claiming that disclosure would harm ‘intelligence sharing’ between the two countries. In effect they are blackmailing the British spooks with turning off their supply of secret titbits unless they take part in the cover-up. Of course, since this ‘intelligence’ was acquired through systematic torture, most of it is complete rubbish.

Clive Stafford Smith, who represents Binyam, sums it up. “First they torture him, then they held him for more than six years without trial, now they want to cover up evidence that could set him free...What is the point of a ‘special relationship’ if the UK  government cannot secure basic justice for Mr Mohamed.” As he points out, there has been, “Systematic British co-operation in the US rendition process.”