A FORMER London college student held at Guantanamo is planning to challenge the system of military courts set up by President George W Bush to try terrorist suspects.

Binyam Mohamed, 27, who lived for seven years in Notting Hill, west London, before travelling to Afghanistan in 2001, will oppose the appointment of a military lawyer to defend him against charges that he is a member of Al-Qaeda and planned a terrorist attack in the United States.

His challenge, if it succeeds, could throw into chaos the Bush administration’s plans to try prisoners at Guantanamo with special courts known as military commissions.

Mohamed is also expected to claim that evidence against him — including his own confessions — was extracted after he was subjected to torture.

Although the military commission system was established in 2001, no trial has yet gone ahead. Mohamed’s lawyers say they are prepared to take his challenge against the system to the Supreme Court if necessary.

In summer 2001 Mohamed travelled to a training camp in Afghanistan. His aim, said friends, was to receive spiritual and military training, possibly to fight against the Russians in Chechnya. He has denied contemplating involvement in terrorism.

In April 2002 he was arrested in Pakistan. From there, he alleges, he was placed into the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” programme.

He has told Clive Stafford Smith, his British lawyer, that he was put on a CIA jet and flown to Morocco where for 18 months he underwent severe torture. This included being cut over his genitals with razor blades, he says.

In an account that matches the flight logs of CIA jets, he says he was flown back to Afghanistan and held in a CIA jail near Kabul where he was “willing to sign anything”. He confessed to involvement with Al-Qaeda and was transferred to Guantanamo.

The Foreign Office, which has refused to make representations on his behalf, confirmed last year that Mohamed was interviewed by British officials in Pakistan before his transfer to Morocco.

A report published last week by the Council of Europe, the human rights watchdog, accused Britain of sharing evidence with the United States that was used against Mohamed. The report said Mohamed had been asked about details of his education, his friendships and even his kickboxing training in London — information that “could only have originated from collusion in this interrogation process by UK intelligence services”.

According to the American allegations, Mohamed met senior Al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan and agreed to take part in a terrorist attack in America.

The commission process is under review by the Supreme Court, which is due to rule soon on a challenge by another Guantanamo inmate, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, allegedly a former guard for Osama Bin Laden.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Afghanistan News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Please help: maimed children of war want their lives back
• Cabal seizes diamond riches to buy power
• White House gatecrashers got to the president