29 Facts About Binyam Mohamed

Binyam Mohamed was arrested in Pakistan and transported first to Morocco under the US's extraordinary rendition program, where he claimed to have been interrogated under torture.

Binyam Mohamed said that the evidence against him was obtained using torture and later denied any confession.

Binyam Mohamed arrived in the United Kingdom on 23 February 2009.

Binyam Mohamed lived there for seven years with leave to remain while his application was resolved.

In June 2001, Binyam Mohamed travelled to Afghanistan, for reasons which are in dispute.

The British and US authorities contend, and the Personal Representative's initial interview notes record, that Binyam Mohamed admitted receiving paramilitary training in the al Farouq training camp run by al-Qaeda.

Binyam Mohamed admitted to military training, but said that it was to fight with the Muslim resistance in Chechnya against the Russians, which was not illegal.

Binyam Mohamed said that he had made false statements while being tortured in Pakistani jails.

On 10 April 2002, Binyam Mohamed was arrested at Pakistan's Karachi airport by Pakistani authorities as a suspected terrorist, while attempting to return to the UK under a false passport.

Binyam Mohamed contends that he was subjected to extraordinary rendition by the United States, and entered a "ghost prison system" run by US intelligence agents in Pakistan, Morocco and Afghanistan.

On 19 September 2004, Binyam Mohamed was taken by US military authorities from Bagram airbase in Afghanistan to their Guantanamo Bay detention camp at their Navy base in Cuba.

Binyam Mohamed says that he was "routinely humiliated and abused and constantly lied to" there.

Binyam Mohamed was told that he would be required to testify against other detainees.

From a written statement by Binyam Mohamed dated 11 August 2005:.

On 7 November 2005, Binyam Mohamed was charged by a military commission at Guantanamo with conspiracy.

The complaint alleges that Binyam Mohamed was trained in Kabul to build dirty bombs.

At the start of his military commission, Binyam Mohamed chose to represent himself.

Binyam Mohamed protested against the commissions, and said he was not the person charged because the Prosecution had spelled his name incorrectly.

Binyam Mohamed said that he had been transported by the US to a black site known as "the dark prison" in Kabul, where captives were permanently chained to the wall, kept in constant darkness, and was subjected to Dr Dre and "The Real Slim Shady" by Eminem at extremely loud levels for 20 days.

Binyam Mohamed's attorneys reported that he had been subjected to "extraordinary rendition", transferred to Morocco, where he was tortured, in addition to the CIA interrogation centres in Afghanistan, prior to his transfer to Guantanamo in 2004.

In February 2009, CBC News reported that Binyam Mohamed had described being warned to cooperate by two women, who represented themselves as Canadians.

On 1 August 2007, Binyam Mohamed joined a civil suit filed with the assistance of the American Civil Liberties Union under the United States' Alien Tort Statute against Jeppesen Dataplan, which had operated the planes that carried him during extraordinary rendition.

Binyam Mohamed had a joint lawsuit with four other plaintiffs: Bisher Al-Rawi, Abou Elkassim Britel, Ahmed Agiza, and Binyam Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah.

Binyam Mohamed was not released however, and in June 2008 the US military announced they were formally charging him.

On 16 January 2009, The Independent reported that Binyam Mohamed had told his lawyers he had been told to prepare for return to the United Kingdom.

The legal organisation Reprieve, which represents Binyam Mohamed, said its client was shown the MI5 telegrams by his military lawyer Yvonne Bradley.

Binyam Mohamed's formerly classified legal opinion, obtained by The Observer, records that the US Government does not dispute "credible" evidence that Binyam Mohamed had been tortured while being held at its behest.

Binyam Mohamed denied that government lawyers had forced the judiciary to water down criticism of MI5, despite an earlier draft ruling by Lord Neuberger, the Master of the Rolls, that the Security Service had failed to respect human rights, had deliberately misled parliament, and had a "culture of suppression" that undermined government assurances about its conduct.

In November 2010, Binyam Mohamed received an undisclosed sum as compensation from the British government as part of a settlement of a number of suits against the government for collusion by MI5.