Binyam Mohamed claims of MI5 torture complicity to be investigated by police

By Gideon Swift | Published: March 26, 2009

Former Guantánamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed has welcomed the announcement that the Metropolitan police have been called in to investigate whether MI5 agents were complicit in his torture, and promised to co-operate with the inquiry.

The attorney general, Lady Scotland, said in a written statement (pdf) today that she had given the allegations of possible criminal wrongdoing “very serious consideration” and felt there were sufficient grounds to launch a criminal investigation. But she stopped short of conceding a full judicial inquiry, which many critics have demanded.

Mohamed, an Ethiopian-born UK resident, said on his release in February that he had been “tortured in medieval ways” since his detention in 2002.

“I’m very pleased that there’s going to be an independent investigation,” he told the Guardian today. “I remain concerned that the investigations shouldn’t just focus on the small people and that one agent shouldn’t be the scapegoat for what was a government policy. I understand that the investigation will include the people directly responsible for the torture, the Americans, and this is obviously very important.”

The attorney general said a decision on criminal charges would be taken following the police investigation. Scotland said the evidence she had reviewed included “the open and closed judgments of the divisional court in the case; transcripts of all the evidence given by witness B; the other evidence and submissions made to the court; the foreign secretary’s PII [public interest immunity] certificates; and material from third parties about the case.”