Innocent Detainee Sues to Prevent Destruction of Evidence He Was Tortured

Former Guantánamo detainee Binyam Mohamed has launched an urgent legal attempt to prevent the US courts from destroying crucial evidence that he says proves he was abused while being held at the detention camp . . . .

The image, now held by the Pentagon, had been put on his cell door . . . . because he had been beaten so badly that it was difficult for the guards to identify him.

. . . . The photograph will be destroyed within 30 days of his case being dismissed by the American courts – a decision on which is due to be taken by a judge imminently . . . .

[Mohamed] says he needs the image as a crucial piece of evidence to fight his case against US authorities for unlawful incarceration and abuse. "That is one piece of physical evidence that I know exists of my abuse," he says in the statement . . . .

After being kicked and punched, he says his guards . . . . "slammed me and my Qur'an into the fence." After he objected, he says, they "slammed me into the fence again. . . . They then strapped me into a restraint chair and cut off half my beard. They then performed the humiliating 'anal cavity search', although it was painfully obvious that there was nothing to find." . . . at one point he screamed and . . . this "made them redouble their efforts and my situation got worse."

He adds: "One [military guard] took the heel of my hand and pushed my nose up violently. One soldier pulled on my jaw. They slammed my forehead down on the concrete floor. One grabbed my testicles and punched me."

More at the UK Guardian.