A Pentagon official overseeing the Guantanamo war crimes court dismissed all pending charges against five
prisoners today, including a British resident accused in a radioactive "dirty bomb" plot.
The US Defence Department gave no reason for the action and said the charges had been dismissed without prejudice, meaning they could be refiled later.
The move came after the US abandoned the case against Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian who studied engineering in London.
Earlier this month, Mr Mohamed's lawyers took the British government to court to try to force it to hand over evidence to help with his defense at the now abandoned Guantanamo trial. He alleges he was interrogated by
British security services in Pakistan, hung by the hands with a strap and tortured by Pakistani and Moroccan officials with US connivance, according to court documents.
He also claims he was held incommunicado and without a lawyer between 2002 and 2004. Lawyers for the British government have opposed handing over evidence on national security grounds.
The judges in the case have yet to deliver their ruling. The US accused Mr Mohamed of being an unlawful enemy combatant who conspired to commit acts of terrorism. The offences are punishable by death, his lawyer, Richard Stein, said at an earlier hearing.
Bloomberg
