On 24 July 2008, Binyam Mohamed will be 30 years old. Unlike most other people aged 30, on that day, Binyam will have spent one out of every five years of his life in illegal American detention.
Arrested in Pakistan in 2002, he was transferred to CIA custody. A victim of the “extraordinary rendition” programme, he was tortured in Morocco for 18 months, where the torture technique used involved making multiple incisions all over his body with a scalpel, including his penis. Binyam has been held in Guantánamo Bay since September 2004. The US recently brought terrorism-related charges against him; he could face a military tribunal and the death penalty if convicted. In August 2007, the British government asked for his return to the UK which the US refused. The British government must do more and act more visibly to secure Binyam’s release from Guantánamo Bay and return to the UK, where he lived for more than 7 years.