The case of British resident Binyam Mohamed has been referred to the Attorney General Baroness Scotland, requesting a full investigation of his torture and rendition by the CIA.

Criminal prosecutions may therefore be brought against the perpetrators, which could include officials at Prestwick Airport, through which Mohamed was transported.

Prestwick airport claimed that they had no power to board or interfere with CIA torture flights, a claim flatly rejected by criminal practitoners who spoke directly to the Firm. They said that if an inbound flight was carrying a bomb for instance, there would be no question that local or transport police could board the flight without question. 

“This is a welcome recognition that the CIA cannot just go rendering British residents to secret torture chambers without any consequences, and British agents cannot take part in American crimes without facing the music,” said Reprieve director, Clive Stafford Smith.

“Reprieve will be making submissions to the Attorney General to ensure that those involved in these crimes – from the US, Pakistan, Morocco, Britain, and elsewhere – are held responsible.”

The letter from the Treasury Solicitor wrote to the judges presiding over Mohamed’s case against the UK government in the High Court reads in part: "The question of possible criminal wrongdoing to which these proceedings has given rise has been referred by the Home Secretary to the Attorney general for consideration as an independent minister of justice,"

 "To that end the Home Secretary has sent the Attorney General:

(1) the open and closed judgment handed down by the Court thus far
(2) the transcripts (open and closed) of the cross examination of Witness A
(3) the open and closed written arguments and evidence of the parties and the Special Advocates
(4) the PII Certificates of the Home Secretary and the Foreign Secretary with their associated documents and sensitive schedules"

Richard Stein of Leigh Day solicitors who reperesent Mohamed said that the British Government had little choice in the matter, once they conceded that a case had been made out that Binyam Mohamed was tortured.

"The Convention Against Torture rightly imposes an obligation on signatory states to investigate cases of torture, and we look forward to a full and open airing of the crimes committed against Mr. Mohamed and a thorough investigation by the Police and Crown Prosecution Service into this case,” he said. 

After passing through Prestwick airport in 2002, Reprieve have shown that Mohamed was held illegally in Pakistan for three months, where a British agent interrogated him; he was then sent to Morocco by the CIA on July 21, 2002 and tortured for 18 months; he was then rendered to the secret “Dark Prison” in Afghanistan, where his torture continued.

Since September 2004, he has been illegally held in Guantánamo Bay.