British resident faces further Guantanamo Bay 'farce'

The US government was today accused of "farce" after dropping all charges against a British resident held at Guantanamo Bay.

Binyam Mohamed, who is accused of terrorism, is now likely to be charged again within weeks, according to legal action charity Reprieve.

Reprieve director Clive Stafford Smith said: "Far from being a victory for Mr Mohamed in his long-running struggle for justice, this is more of the same farce that is Guantanamo.

"The military has informed us that they plan to charge him again within a month, after the election."

The US military dropped all charges last night "without prejudice".

Reprieve said US military prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Darrel Vandeveld, who resigned last month, had raised complaints about the suppression of evidence.

The charity said the US government violated a federal order to produce evidence in Mohamed's favour.

But it said the Pentagon intended to re-file charges within 30 days with prosecutors arguing the complaints have been resolved.

Mohamed, 30, who lived in west London, was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and transferred to Guantanamo in 2004.

He was accused of planning an attack that included the use of radioactive material and chemical weapons.

But Mohamed insists he admitted to plotting the dirty bomb attack only after being tortured, which included having his penis cut with a razor.

Mr Stafford Smith said: "The Bush Administration will not even admit in public that they rendered Mr Mohamed to face torture in Morocco, let alone allow him a fair trial.

"Meanwhile he sits in solitary confinement in Guantanamo, in total despair, contemplating whether he should just commit suicide."

Reprieve, which has long campaigned for the case against Mohamed to be dropped, says he should be returned to the UK.

They say he is a victim of "extraordinary rendition" and torture.

The charity says Mohamed was sent to Morocco by the CIA in July 2002, where he was tortured for 18 months before being rendered to a secret prison in Afghanistan.

Mohamed has been fighting a long, high-profile legal battle in both the American and English courts for access to 42 documents.

Lawyers for the Muslim convert believe the secret papers may contain information backing his claim that he only confessed to terrorist activities after being held incommunicado for two years and suffering ill-treatment.

The US government has been accused of using a strategy of delay to avoid having to disclose the evidence that could support the torture allegations.