MI6 'helped interrogators during torture of suspect'

Washington: The British Government suppressed evidence that a terrorist suspect was tortured before being imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay because the documents revealed that MI6 officers helped his interrogators, The Sunday Telegraph claimed.

Material in a CIA dossier on Binyam Mohammad that was blacked out by High Court judges last week contained details of how MI6 supplied information to his captors and contributed questions as he was tortured.

Intelligence sources said spy chiefs put pressure on David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, to do nothing that would leave serving MI6 officers open to prosecution.

Nor do they want him to jeopardise relations with the CIA, which is passing on "top notch" information about British terrorist suspects. Mohammad, 30, an Ethiopian, was granted refugee status in Britain in 1994.

He was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 on suspicion of involvement in terrorism, transported to Morocco and Afghanistan, tortured and then sent to Guantanamo Bay in 2004.

All terrorism charges against him were dropped last year. Last week, two High Court judges said they wanted to release the contents of a CIA file on his treatment.

However, they withheld seven paragraphs after Miliband argued that it could compromise the sharing of intelligence with the US.

A British official, who is regularly briefed on intelligence operations, said: "The concern was that the document revealed that intelligence from the British agencies was used by the Americans and that there were British questions asked while Mohammad was being tortured. Miliband is being pushed hard by the intelligence agencies to protect the identity of those involved."

The 25 lines edited out of the court papers contained details of how Mohammad's genitals were sliced with a scalpel.

Another source familiar with the case said: "British intelligence officers knew about the torture and didn't do anything about it. They supplied information to the Americans and the Moroccans. They supplied questions, they supplied photographs. There is evidence of all of that."