LONDON, (Reuters) – The Court of Appeal ruled yesterday that a judgement strongly criticising the country’s security services over the alleged torture of a former Guantanamo Bay detainee should be published.
Earlier this month, the court agreed to disclose seven paragraphs relating to secret U.S. intelligence material about claims of abuse suffered by Binyam Mohamed at the hands of CIA agents.
The ruling came after the High Court decided in 2008 that the British government had to reveal all the evidence it held against Mohamed except these paragraphs.
However, part of this judgement was removed after British government lawyers saw a draft version and put pressure on the court, arguing that it had gone too far and would damage Britain’s domestic spy agency MI5.
Yesterday, the court agreed that both a draft and final version of the judgement which included criticisms of the British security services should now be published “in the interests of open justice”.