KEY POINTS:
Binyam Mohamed will return to Britain suffering from a huge range of injuries after being beaten by United States guards right up to the point of his departure from Guantanamo Bay, according to the first detailed accounts of his treatment inside the camp.
Mohamed will arrive back tomorrow
in the UK, where he was a British resident between 1984 and 2002.
During medical examinations last week, doctors discovered injuries and ailments resulting from apparently brutal treatment in detention.
Mohamed was found to be suffering from bruising, organ damage, stomach complaints, malnutrition, sores to feet and hands, severe damage to ligaments as well as profound emotional and psychological problems which were exacerbated by the refusal of Guantanamo's guards to give him counselling.
Mohamed's British lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, said his client had been beaten "dozens" of times inside the notorious US camp in Cuba, with the most recent abuse occurring during recent weeks.
He said: "He has a list of physical ailments that cover two sheets of A4 paper. What Binyam has been through should have been left behind in the Middle Ages."
Lieutenant Colonel Yvonne Bradley, Mohamed's US military lawyer, added: "He has been severely beaten. Sometimes I don't like to think about it because my country is behind all this."
Claims that Mohamed was beaten during the period after President Barack Obama announced Guantanamo's closure in January risk harming diplomatic relations between the Administration and the British Government.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown is believed to have raised Mohamed's case with the US President during their first talk following Obama's inauguration two months ago.
Stafford Smith, the director of the legal charity Reprieve, said yesterday that Mohamed had been routinely beaten by Guantanamo's notorious emergency reaction force, a six-strong team of guards in riot gear who have been the subject of previous abuse allegations.
The alleged beatings were routinely administered against Mohamed "for no reason" and some were "recent", according to Stafford Smith.
Upon his return to England after more than four years inside Guantanamo, Mohamed will be taken to a secure, secret location in order for him to be fully rehabilitated by a team of volunteer doctors and psychiatrists.
Mohamed will be kept under a "voluntary security arrangement" which involves reporting to the authorities, but he will not be subject to an anti-terror control order. His lawyers reiterate that he has nothing to hide after US terror charges against him were dropped last year.
Mohamed will not be debriefed upon his arrival by the British authorities or face any interview from the British security agencies.
At least one MI5 officer is currently waiting to hear whether he will face a criminal investigation over alleged complicity in the torture of Mohamed, who settled in Kensington, west London, after arriving from Ethiopia as a teenage asylum seeker.
Mohamed's eventual testimony may also shed light on MI5's alleged complicity in his interrogation and alleged torture. One likely step will involve suing the British Government and its security services over potential allegations of complicity in his illegal detention, abduction, treatment and interrogation.
Lord Carlile, the independent reviewer of the anti-terrorism laws, warned yesterday that, once settled, Mohamed's possible legal action against the US or British authorities could force them to disclose vital evidence relating to the torture allegations.
Bradley said the most crucial issue was stabilising his health. Mohamed's weight had fallen from 77kg to about 56kg.
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