R (Binyam Mohamed) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

The High Court has held that the UK Government is under a duty to disclose evidence which it holds about the treatment of Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed. The duty to disclose covers the period between Mr Mohamed’s detention by Pakistani authorities in April 2002 and his subsequent reappearance in Bagram Air Base in July 2004, during which time he claims to have been repeatedly tortured.

In their judgment handed down on 21 August, Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd held that the handing over of information held by the British government about the alleged torture of Mr Mohamed, who was represented by Dinah Rose QC and Ben Jaffey at the hearing, was “essential for him to have his case fairly considered”.

“Without that information, BM [Mohamed] will not be able to put forward a defence to the very serious charges he faces, given the confessions made by him in Bagram and Guantanamo Bay in 2004,” the judges ruled.
The judgment acknowledged that the British government last year requested that Mr Mohamed be returned to the UK and that Britain had gone to great lengths to assist him.

Dinah Rose QC, Ben Jaffey and Tristan Jones were instructed by Leigh Day & Co on behalf of the claimant. Tom de la Mare appeared as a special advocate, instructed by the Treasury Solicitor’s Special Advocate’s Support Office. Pushpinder Saini QC, instructed by the Treasury Solicitor, appeared for the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.