WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A British resident held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be flown back to England next week, The Washington Post reported on Friday.
Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian with British residency who has been in Guantanamo since 2004, could be released as early as Monday, the newspaper said, citing an unidentified source involved in the process.
He would be the first Guantanamo inmate transferred by the Obama administration, the Post said.
The case of Binyam Mohamed has received widespread coverage in Britain. The 30-year-old is one of two British residents still held at the U.S. detention centre in Cuba. He has said he was abused and tortured, with the knowledge of British and American agents, after his 2002 arrest in Pakistan.
U.S. President Barack Obama ordered that Guantanamo Bay be shut down and said Mohamed’s case would be one of the first to be reviewed. More than 200 prisoners remain at the facility and Justice Department officials are reviewing their cases.
Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd told the paper the United States was “continuing to engage actively” with the British government on the Mohamed case. U.S. officials also told the Post they were discussing the case of Shaker Aamer, another former British resident.
Evidence detailing Mohamed’s torture allegations are contained in 42 classified documents that are the subject of legal proceedings. Britain and the United States say these cannot be made available because doing so would breach national security.
The High Court ruled this month that the evidence should not be made public after lawyers for the Foreign Office argued that to do so could lead the United States to end security cooperation with Britain.
Asked whether Britain’s actions via the courts might be perceived as trying to cover up evidence of torture, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that was not the case.
When Mohammed is returned to Britain, questions surrounding his treatment are only likely to intensify.
The attorney general, who has seen some of the classified documents relating to his case, has said there could be enough evidence to order a police investigation into the actions of intelligence and security officials.
(Writing by Stacey Joyce; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
