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UK government appeals release of details on ex-Guantanamo detainee's treatment

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] British government lawyers argued Monday that two UK High Court judges acted irresponsibly when they ruled last month that the details of the detention of Binyam Mohamed in Pakistan in 2002 must be released. Lawyers representing Foreign Secretary David Miliband were appealing the latest in a series of back and forth rulings on whether redacted materials regarding Mohamed's detention should be disclosed. An October interim ruling by Lord Justice Thomas and Justice Lloyd Jones resulted in a redacted release, which the High Court indicated it would revisit after receiving submissions from both the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) and Mohamed. In handing down its most recent decision ordering disclosure, Thomas and Jones said that in making public details of a detainee's treatment, "we were not in the judgment 'giving away the intelligence secrets of a foreign country' or making public 'American secrets.'" Both justices were critical of Milliband's efforts to keep the information classified, noting that the US had already released similar information on the treatment of Abu Zubayah. The appeal is being heard by Lord Judge, Lord Neuberger, and Sir Anthony May. Also last month, a separate judge on the High Court ruled that, in Mohamed's separate suit for damages, information relating to his treatment at Guantanamo Bay may be withheld under a "closed material procedure." Mohamed was returned to the UK in February, after charges against him were dismissed in October 2008. Mohamed had been held at Guantanamo Bay for four years, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit terrorism.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on December 15, 2009 (boomark / email).