Terror suspect flown to Britain on private jet

A FORMER Al Qaeda suspect was flown back to Britain on a luxury jet yesterday – at Government expense.

Binyam Mohamed was in Guantanamo Bay prison for over four years Binyam Mohamed was in Guantanamo Bay prison for over four years

Now taxpayers face a massive bill for his new life on benefits.

Alleged torture victim Binyam Mohamed, 30, stepped off a twin-engined Gulfstream at an RAF base after more than six years as a US prisoner being held in Guantanamo Bay.

Accompanied on the flight by two Foreign Office officials, two Metropolitan Police officers and a doctor, Ethiopian Mohamed’s return to his adopted country cost an amazing £120,000.

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Last night, he was preparing to apply for indefinite leave to remain in the UK and receive a possible £21,600-a-year in benefits and allowances.

That’s around £5,000 more than earned by a frontline British soldier risking his life to fight Mohamed’s alleged Taliban associates in Afghanistan.

The former detainee, a failed asylum seeker who was once granted British resident status, may also try to sue the British Government for hundreds of thousands of pounds in damages.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband came under fire for saying he was “pleased” Mohamed – once accused of plotting terror attacks on New York – was back on British soil.

As MPs and campaigners vented their fury, Downing Street denied suggestions that Gordon Brown agreed to take him back in return for being the first European leader to meet President Barack Obama at the White House next week.

Tory MP David Davies said: “I don’t think it should be a source of pleasure to anyone that this man has returned to the UK. He is an Ethiopian national who was lucky ever to be in Britain in the first place. If he was flown back to Addis Ababa, I think we would all breathe a sigh of relief.”

Fellow Tory MP Philip Davies said: “It’s absolutely ludicrous. This guy isn’t a British citizen, he just happened to be residing in Britain. I cannot see any advantage to the British taxpayer in him coming here. The likelihood is that he will be on benefits and we will be forking out for him while the country is going bankrupt.

“And is he a danger to public safety? Will the Government be putting him under 24-hour monitoring by the security services with the extra strain that on taxpayers’ money? It is an astonishing decision.”

Mr Davies, MP for Shipley, West Yorkshire, added: “If the Prime Minister is prepared to put the British public’s safety at risk in order to massage his own ego, then he should be ashamed.”

Susie Squire, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Binyam Mohamed has already cost the British public quite enough without the luxury of private jets. A cheaper way should have been found to bring him back.

“This man is not even a British citizen, and yet is going to continue to be a massive financial burden on law-abiding taxpayers in this country. We’re in a recession and people need money to feed their kids, not foot the bill for chartering planes and round-the-clock surveillance.”

Mohamed’s return came after a storm of allegations that British intelligence officials knew he was being tortured after he was originally held in Pakistan in September 2002. The claims are vigorously denied.

Earlier this month, it emerged that President Obama threatened to cut off the flow of intelligence to Britain if information about the alleged torture was made public.

Two High Court judges ruled that the danger to national security was so severe that claims about what allegedly happened to him in American-run jails should remain secret.

Mohamed touched down at RAF Northolt in north-west London around 1pm yesterday and was immediately detained under the ports and borders section of the Terrorism Act. He was released after 4d hours without charge.

Mohamed’s journey to Britain from the Guantanamo Bay prison complex in Cuba was in the lap of luxury. The Gulfstream jets, normally hired by business executives and stars, boast gourmet meals and “premium beverages”.

According to US officials, the Gulfstream was hired by the charter firm Prime Jet. The company’s website boasts: “The moment you walk into our pristine cabin, you are transported into a world of unparalleled luxury.

“Our spacious six-foot-three cabin makes you feel like you are relaxing in our own private hotel suite.”

A Government spokesman yesterday confirmed the taxpayer has been landed with the bill for the flight.

He said: “These steps were taken out of a desire to assist the United States in reducing the number of detainees at Guantanamo Bay towards the eventual closure of the facility.”

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The overall cost of the operation is yet to be finalised, he added. Mohamed, who arrived in Britain in 1994, was given leave to remain for four years in 2000. In June 2001, he travelled to Afghanistan where he was alleged to have fought against anti-Taliban forces. He was arrested at Karachi, Pakistan, in April 2002 as he went to board a flight back to the UK.

He claimed he was tortured in Pakistan and Morocco with the know ledge of British officials before he was transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2004.

Last night, Mohamed, who has a flat in North Kensington, London, said: “For myself, the very worst moment came when I realised in Morocco that the people who were torturing me were receiving questions from British intelligence.

I had met with British intelligence in Pakistan. I had been open with them. Yet the very people who I had hoped would come to my rescue, I later realised, had allied themselves with my abusers.

“I am not asking for vengeance, only that the truth should be made known, so that nobody in the future should have to endure what I have endured.”

Mohamed claims the torture included being injected with heroin and slashed with a scalpel. His lawyer Clive Stafford Smith said he was convinced of the man’s innocence. “If anyone wants to put him on trial, in the immortal words of George Bush, bring them on,” he said.

• Additional reporting by John Ingham and Laura Clout

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