LONDON — A British court ordered Wednesday that intelligence documents detailing a Guantanamo detainee’s alleged abuse should be kept secret — shifting the burden to U.S. President Barack Obama to disclose information that was hidden under the Bush administration.
The ruling was largely based on an assertion made by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband’s office that disclosing the documents could prompt the U.S. to withhold valuable intelligence information.
Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian who became a British resident when he was a teenager, was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and accused of links to al-Qaeda. He claimed he was tortured in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Morocco — mistreatment sponsored by his U.S. captors but also allegedly known by British intelligence agents.
His lawyers launched a legal battle in Britain last year, suing for 44 documents they said could prove that evidence that prompted terrorism charges in Guantanamo Bay was obtained under torture and should be inadmissible.
The British government argued that releasing the documents could jeopardize national security and threaten intelligence sharing between the U.S. and Britain.
The justices saw the documents but were prohibited from showing them to Mohamed’s defense attorneys.
Journalists were also barred from the closed hearings and from seeing the documents, which the court said detail Mohamed’s treatment in captivity.
The dramatic case has gone through a series of twists and turns — first with the U.S. refusing a British court order to hand over the documents, then with the justices taking a rare step to encourage the media to sue for the documents’ disclosure.
Wednesday’s ruling was a response to the legal challenge brought by The Associated Press, Guardian News and Media Ltd., British Broadcasting Corp., Times Newspapers Limited, Independent News and Media Ltd., The Press Association and The New York Times.
Mohamed’s own suit to disclose the documents was put on hold after terrorism charges were dropped against him and his release from Guantanamo was thought to be imminent. He remains at the U.S. prison.
While Obama has vowed to end torture, there has been no move to disclose information previously hidden during the Bush administration.
