Following last week's High Court judgment that the UK must in principle disclose evidence of a British resident's rendition and torture, the Court has today criticised the Foreign Secretary for failing to give due weight to the importance and gravity of his ill-treatment.
At a hearing on Wednesday the Foreign Secretary argued that in the light of significant concessions made by the US authorities, the public interest lay in non-disclosure because it would upset our ally, the US. The Court however has found that the Foreign Secretary failed to give enough weight to the seriousness of the torture suffered by Mr Mohamed.
The Foreign Secretary has been given until 5th September to reconsider his position.
Richard Stein said:
"Today's judgment discloses the shocking fact that the Foreign Secretary failed to give any proper weight in secret submissions he made to the court to the abhorrence of torture when he puported to determine that it was in the public interest not to disclose the evidence of ill-treatment to our client. This is extremely surprising given that this case is all about Binyam's rendition and his torture at the behest of the US. The Court has given the Foreign Secretary a further chance to reconsider his position before passing judgment. We await his response with interest."
For more information please contact
Richard Stein or
Jamie Beagent on 020 7650 1200.
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