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Former Guantanamo Bay 'torture' prisoner Binyam Mohamed was offered freedom only if he pledged not to sue the British Government, it has emerged.
The 'deal' put to Mohamed, who claims he was abused during seven years of captivity with the help of British secret agents, was revealed by two High Court judges.
Mohamed was told by his U.S. military captors at the Cuban base he could go back to Britain only if he:
- signed a statement saying he had never been tortured;
- promised never to speak to the media; promised never to sue the United States, or any U.S. ally, including Britain;
- and pleaded guilty to terror charges.
The military even wanted him to assign any rights he might have to compensation to the U.S. government.
Mohamed refused the deal and the U.S. eventually dropped all charges against him later last year. He was released last month.
Free: Binyam Mohamed arriving back in the UK last month
The extraordinary plea bargain was branded immoral and illegal by Mohamed's lawyers.
And MPs demanded to know what part Britain had played in trying to hush up Mohamed's alleged torture.
Clive Stafford Smith, who has represented 30-year-old Mohamed for four years, said: 'He was being told he would never leave Guantánamo Bay unless he promised never to discuss his torture, and never sue either the Americans or the British to force disclosure of his mistreatment.
'Gradually the truth is leaking out, and the governments on both sides of the Atlantic should pause to consider whether they should continue to fight to keep this torture evidence secret.'
Details of the desperate lengths to which the Americans were prepared to go emerged in a previously-secret court judgment released yesterday by the High Court.
They were held back until negotiations were complete to agree Mohamed's release, but have now been made public.
Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones said Mohamed had been asked to agree the plea despite not being allowed to know the charges against him.
Since his release, Ethiopian-born Mr Mohamed has given numerous interviews accusing MI5 of supplying '70 per cent' of the questions used by his CIA tormentors in a Moroccan prison where he said he was held for 18 months, beaten and had his genitals slashed.
He was later flown by 'extraordinary rendition' by the CIA to Guantanamo Bay for four years.
His claims have put mounting pressure on Foreign Secretary David Miliband to admit the Government either knew about his torture, or colluded in it.
Mr Miliband has refused to give evidence to a Parliamentary inquiry into what the UK knew.
The Foreign Office has insisted it does not condone the use of torture and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has referred Mohamed's claims to the Attorney General, Baroness Scotland, to consider whether any criminal prosecutions should be brought.
Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Edward Davey said: 'This looks like a clumsy attempt to intimidate Binyam into silence.
'If the British Government, at any level, prove to have known about such an attempt, then that would seem yet another case of British complicity in torture.'
Mr Stafford Smith added: 'After the years of suffering he had been through, Binyam was willing to do just about anything to get out of there, but he would not plead guilty to something he did not do, nor would he lie about the fact that he had been tortured.
'Likewise, the "condition" that he agree not to speak about his torture is absolutely shameful.
'The truth about what happened to Binyam needs to come out and our government should do all it can to make that happen.'
His colleague Clare Algar added: 'By early 2009, the U.S. military was still desperately trying to get Mr Mohamed to plead guilty to something - anything - in order to save face.
'The final "offer" was that this man, originally alleged to be a most dangerous terrorist, should plead guilty and receive a sentence of only 10 days in prison, less than one might expect for many driving offences.
'Mr Mohamed rejected this offer, as he continued to insist that he was not guilty. Offering a man who is protesting his innocence freedom on the condition that he pleads guilty to something and serves a 10-day sentence is face-saving on an horrific scale.'
It has emerged that Craig Murray, the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, is to tell MPs that the British Government has an official policy of accepting intelligence obtained by torture.
Mr Murray, who was sacked after exposing appalling human rights abuses, will give evidence to the Parliamentary joint committee on human rights next month.
Mr Murray has long claimed he was aware of intelligence passed on to MI6 by the CIA which had been obtained by the torture of suspects by the Uzbek regime.
Mr Murray said: 'As British ambassador, I was told there is a very definite policy to accept intelligence from torture abroad.'
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