24 Feb 2009

Detainee returns to Britain

9:41 am on 24 February 2009

A man held by the Americans at the Guantanamo Bay, Binyam Mohamed, has returned to Britain saying he was abducted, hauled from country to country and tortured in mediaeval ways, by the United States government.

In a statement, Mr Mohamed, 30, a British resident of Ethiopian origin, accused Britain of complicity.

He landed at RAF Northolt in London on Monday afternoon, accompanied by Metropolitan Police officers.

All charges against him were dropped and he was never tried.

His detention began in April 2002 when he was seized at an airport in Pakistan for trying to travel on a friend's passport.

He says he was tortured and abused by Pakistani intelligence agents in the presence of British intelligence officers.

Mr Mohamed says he was taken to Morocco on a CIA plane in July 2002 and again tortured and abused for 18 months before being transferred to Afghanistan and then to Guantanamo Bay in September 2004.