Richard Ford, Home Correspondent
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A British resident held as a terrorist suspect at Guantánamo Bay for more than four years is to be flown to Britain next week. Binyam Mohamed could arrive as early as Monday after the US and British governments “reached agreement” on his transfer.
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, announced Mr Mohamed’s return yesterday and said that he would be in Britain “as soon as the practical arrangements can be made”.
Mr Mohamed, 30, has agreed to a number of conditions on his return, which include reporting regularly to the authorities. He is expected to be placed under surveillance but will not be subject to an anti-terror control order, which would severely restrict his movements and access to telephones and the internet.
Whitehall sources said that it would be impossible to use a control order because the courts would never accept evidence of his alleged terrorist links, which could have been obtained through torture. The Home Office refused to comment last night on whether Mr Mohamed would be flown to Britain on a commercial flight or a military aircraft.
Mr Mohamed has been held at the US military detention centre at Guantánamo Bay, in Cuba, since September 2004. He went on a hunger strike for more than a month at the start of this year and was described by his legal team as “close to starvation”.
The detainee, who lived in London before his arrest in Pakistan in 2002, alleges that he was tortured into falsely confessing to terrorist activities and claims that MI5 officers were complicit in his abuse. Mr Miliband said: “The UK and US governments have reached agreement on the transfer of Binyam Mohamed from Guantánamo Bay to the UK. This follows recent discussions between the British and US governments and a medical assessment, undertaken by a UK doctor, that Mr Mohamed is medically fit to return.”
He will be met by immigration officials on his arrival. Mr Miliband added: “His immigration status will be reviewed following his return and the same security considerations will apply to him as would apply to any other foreign national in this country.”
Mr Mohamed claims that after being detained in Pakistan he was flown secretly to Morocco and tortured before being moved to Afghanistan and then to Guantánamo Bay. The US accused him of involvement in a radioactive “dirty bomb” plot but all terror charges against him were dropped last year.
The Attorney-General is consulting the Director of Public Prosecutions over whether to order a criminal investigation into claims that intelligence and security agents were involved in torturing him.
The torture allegations are at the centre of a continuing legal row after two High Court judges complained that they were blocked by Mr Miliband from making public information relating to Mr Mohamed’s case for national security reasons.
Edward Davey, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said that Mr Mohamed’s release was “long overdue”. He said: “With Mr Mohamed back in the UK, the Government will have to come clean over any British role in his alleged torture.”
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