London - Britain's attorney general is to investigate torture allegations in connection with the last British inmate held at the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, the government said Friday. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith referred the case of Binyam Mohamed to the attorney general, Baroness Scotland, amid allegations that he was tortured into falsely confessing to terrorist activities.
Mohamed, 30, an Ethiopian Muslim convert who lived in west London, was arrested in Pakistan in 2002.
He alleges he was held incommunicado without access to a lawyer for more than two-and-a-half years and was secretly rendered to Morocco and tortured before being flown first to Afghanistan and then to the US detention centre in September, 2004.
Amnesty International and lawyers representing British detainees at Guantanamo welcomed the decision, which Amnesty said had been "long overdue."
Lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, who represents Mohamed and other British inmates, said: "This is a welcome recognition that the CIA cannot just go rendering British residents to secret torture chambers without any consequences, and British agents cannot take part in American crimes without facing the music."
Reprieve, the charity working on behalf of the detainees, would be making submissions to the attorney general to make sure that "those involved in these crimes - from the US, Pakistan, Morocco, Britain, and elsewhere - are held responsible," said Stafford Smith.
Mohamed has now been in detention for more than six-and-a-half years without trial and his mental health is deteriorating, his lawyers say.
The US military dropped all charges against him on October 21, but his lawyers believe he will be charged again within weeks.
Amnesty called on the British government to step up its efforts to have Binyam released and returned to Britain.
