Former Gitmo Prisoner Fights to Save Torture Photo

Says Pentagon wants to kill 'abuse evidence'
By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 6, 2009 5:13 AM CDT
Former Gitmo Prisoner Fights to Save Torture Photo
Binyam Mohamed, 30, was the first inmate from the US prison camp freed since Barack Obama took office. He was held for seven years.   (AP Photo/ Sang Tan)

A Guantanamo prisoner released to Britain after seven years in detention is fighting to keep the Pentagon from destroying a photograph he says proves he was abused, reports the Guardian. Binyam Mohamed does not have copies of the image, taken after he was brutally beaten, but he knows it exists because it was taped to his cell door by Guantanamo authorities, he says. The photo will be destroyed within 30 days of a judge's ruling that his case is officially dismissed.

"That is one piece of physical evidence that I know exists of my abuse," Mohamed said in his sworn statement. "They slammed my forehead down on the concrete floor. One grabbed my testicles and punched me. This is physical evidence that I am telling the truth, and they are not." He says he was told the photo was displayed to help guards identify him because he had been beaten beyond recognition.
(More Binyam Mohamed stories.)

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