British officials headed to the U.S. military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay on Saturday to visit a hunger-striking detainee at the center of overseas torture claims and prepare him for his possible release.
A Foreign Office spokesman said the team, which included a doctor, will check on the health of Binyam Mohamed, a former British resident who has been on hunger strike for more than a month to protest his detention.
Mohamed, 30, was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and has been held in Guantanamo since 2004. Terrorism charges against him were dropped last year. Mohamed says he was beaten in Pakistan and tortured in Morocco before being sent to Guantanamo.
Mohamed's lawyers and the British government say they expect U.S. President Barack Obama to approve Mohamed's release within days.
The Obama administration is moving to close the prison camp in eastern Cuba and undertaking a review to make sure the 245 suspects remaining there are given international and U.S. legal rights. That review will determine whether the terror suspects should be tried in U.S. courts or released to other countries.
"A team of British officials have left Miami airport today to visit Mr. Binyam Mohamed in Guantanamo Bay," said a Foreign Office spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with policy.
"The visit will make preparations for his return, should the ongoing U.S. review into Guantanamo Bay detainees confirm a decision a decision to release him."
British officials have been granted access to Mohamed in Guantanamo on only one other occasion, in July.
Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who has lobbied the U.S. government to release Mohamed and let him return to Britain, met Wednesday with Mohamed's lawyer, Air Force Lt. Col. Yvonne Bradley.
Mohamed was born in Ethiopia and moved to Britain as a young man.
Mohamed claims that before he was sent to Guantanamo in 2004, he was held in Pakistan, where he was beaten by Pakistani authorities and interviewed by an officer from Britain's domestic spy agency MI5.
After three months in Pakistan, he says the United States sent him to Morocco where he alleges he was interrogated and tortured.
In a court hearing this month, two British judges said U.S. intelligence documents detailing Mohamed's alleged mistreatment could not be disclosed because of Miliband's concern that publication of the material might damage the intelligence-sharing relationship between London and Washington.
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