IMPEACH BUSH

British security services colluded in the unlawful detention and facilitated the interrogation of a UK resident detained in Pakistan six years ago, the high court ruled today.

Two judges ordered the foreign secretary to hand over to Binyam Mohamed's legal team secret information that could support his case that he was tortured in Pakistan and Morocco before being sent to Guantánamo Bay.

Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones found that the British security service "facilitated interviews by or on behalf of the United States incommunicado and without access to a lawyer in Pakistan" in 2002. The detention was unlawful under Pakistani law, the judges said.

Mohamed, 30, an Ethiopian national who worked as a caretaker in London, was charged by the US with terror offences in May and could face the death penalty if found guilty by a military tribunal.

The judges found the handing over of information held by the British government about the alleged torture Mohamed suffered 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 Guantánamo Bay in 2004," the judges ruled.

"It is a longstanding principle of the common law that confessions obtained under torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment cannot be used in evidence in trial."

The judges said the court had established that the British secret service facilitated the questioning of Mohamed. "By seeking to interview BM in the circumstances found [in Pakistan] and supplying information and questions for his interviews, the relationship between the United Kingdom government and the United States authorities was far beyond that of bystander or witness to the alleged wrongdoing."

During the hearing of the case, Dinah Rose QC, for Mohamed, said he was tortured after his detention in Pakistan. He was rendered to Morocco where he was subjected to more prolonged and brutal torture after being made to "disappear", she said.

The former Kensington caretaker alleges he was repeatedly slashed in the genitals with a razor blade while being held in Morocco. Finally, he was rendered to Guantánamo Bay, where he has spent the past four years.

Rose told the judges the US authorities denied that Mohamed had been subjected to extraordinary rendition or torture. But there were strong grounds for believing that MI6 and MI5 held independent evidence supporting his story of torture.

Lawyers for the Foreign Office argued at the hearing that the government had acted within its powers and was not legally obliged to make the disclosures sought. The foreign secretary was entitled to proceed on the basis that the US legal system would safeguard Mohamed's rights, they said.

To disclose the documents sought would cause serious damage to national security, it was submitted.

A significant part of the case took place in closed session due to the sensitivity of much of the material before the court.

Today's judgment said the foreign secretary accepted that Mohamed had established an arguable case that he was "subject to torture during his detention by or on behalf of the United States". It was also accepted that he had an arguable case that he was subject to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

"The court finds on the basis that what was done was arguably wrongdoing, the [British] security service facilitated it," the judgment said.

Mohamed's solicitor, Richard Stein, of Leigh Day & Co, said: "Today's judgment reflects the abhorrence of decent society at the methods employed by the United States government in the supposed 'war on terror'.

"It has taken the courts of this country to intervene and reiterate the importance of upholding the rule of law. We can only hope that the foreign secretary will now reflect on this judgment and provide direct assistance to Binyam's defence team."

Clive Stafford Smith, who has represented Mohamed since 2005, described the ruling as a "momentous decision".

"Compelling the British government to release information that can prove Mr Mohamed's innocence is one obvious step towards making up for the years of torture that he has suffered.

"The next step is for the British government to demand an end to the charade against him in Guantánamo Bay, and return him home to Britain," he said.

A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said the department was considering the implications of the judgment very carefully.

"For strong reasons of national security, to which the court accepted we were entitled to give the highest weight, we could not agree to disclose this information voluntarily."

The ruling acknowledged that the British government last year requested that Mohamed be returned to the UK and that Britain had gone to "great lengths" to assist him.