Cuba, July 06: Former detainee of Guantanamo Bay prison Binyam Mohamed has appealed to a US federal court not to destroy evidence that shows his torture.
He said that the evidence proved he was abused while being held at the notorious detention center, the Guardian reported on Sunday.
The evidence is said to consist of a photograph of Mohamed, a British resident, was taken after he was severely beaten by guards at the US navy base in Cuba.
Mohamed appealed to the federal district court in Washington not to destroy the image, which neither he nor his lawyers have a copy of, and which is classified under US law.
He was seized and held in Pakistan in 2002 before being secretly renditioned to Morocco. He was subsequently flown to Afghanistan before being sent to Guantanamo.
The US government considered the case closed once Mohamed was released and returned to Britain in February, according to the Guardian.
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, Clive Stafford Smith, Mohamed’s British lawyer, said.
Under US law, evidence relating to dismissed cases must be automatically destroyed. The only way to preserve the photograph is to have it accepted as a court document.
—–Agencies