Did MI5 help to torture Binyam Mohamed?

A report published this week by the UN human rights council gives a damning insight into the practice of extraordinary rendition and Britain's alleged complicity in the torture of Binyam Mohamed and others.

The report was furiously rejected by the Foreign Office on Thursday and could be a major source of further embarrassment to the British state.

In an interview with UN special rapporteurs, Mr Mohamed gives perhaps the most detailed account of his ordeal to date.

He alleges that while being held in Karachi he was beaten by French and Pakistani intelligence officers and interrogated by the CIA.

These interrogations were likely to have involved the use of one or more of 10 interrogation techniques referred to in memos ordered published by the US last year.

These included waterboarding, being slammed into walls, facial slaps and sleep deprivation.

It is alleged that an MI6 agent was also involved in this phase of Mr Mohamed's rendition and fed questions to his torturers.

From Karachi Mr Mohamed was passed into US custody in Islamabad where he says he was "stripped naked, photographed, anally penetrated, shackled and hooded."

He was flown to Morocco where he was held at three facilities, tied to a wall for days on end, beaten and threatened with death, electrocution and rape.

He was also repeatedly slashed on the chest and penis with a scalpel and salt solution rubbed into his wounds.

During this period, he was continually asked questions about Britain which, it is alleged, could only have come from British intelligence sources.

The allegations add further weight to claims that Britain was at the very least complicit in the kidnapping, detention and torture of its own citizens.

A spokeswoman for Reprieve, which has campaigned on Mr Mohamed's behalf, told the Morning Star: "Despite our government's attempts to suppress Binyam Mohamed's story, details have been leaking out over many years now, each more disturbing than the last.

"It is simply ridiculous that the government is still insisting on secrecy when so much of this information is already in the public domain."

Mr Mohamed is currently challenging the government over its refusal to allow the disclosure of information regarding his torture by the CIA.

Legal representatives for Mr Mohamed, who was finally released from Guantanamo in February last year, have accused the government of attempting to conceal potentially embarrassing material by claiming disclosure would damage intelligence sharing with the US.

In November, this argument was rejected by the High Court on the grounds that much of the disputed information, contained in seven paragraphs of the court's fifth judgement on the case, was already in the public domain.

The government has appealed the decision and a Court of Appeal ruling is expected within days.