UK Gitmo Victims Win Battle to Unlock Torture Evidence

The long-standing legal battle over Britain’s MI5’s complicity with detainee abuse at Guantanamo Bay will take place in public, according to a ruling today in a UK Court of Appeals.

The ruling overturned a previous one which would have allowed MI5 to use secret evidence to defend itself against the claims. The appeals court said the principle of open justice trumped the claims of harm to the public interest.

The ruling will likely provoke yet another angry response from the Obama Administration, which in February blasted the previous release of a “redacted” CIA report on the abuse of a British detainee.

Though the trials are centered around MI5’s involvement and complicity in the abuse, it is US mistreatment of detainees at the core of all these cases, and the public release of such info could prove extremely embarrassing to the US government.