Lawyers for British Foreign Secretary David Miliband accused two senior judges on Monday of being irresponsible for wanting to disclose US intelligence material related to allegations of torture involving the CIA.

Miliband's lawyers accused two of Britain's High Court judges of "charging in" to a diplomatically sensitive area over the case of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed.
 

It follows a ruling by the High Court in October that there was an "overwhelming public interest" to release evidence of his alleged torture while in US detention.
 

Launching an appeal against that ruling, Jonathan Sumption, the foreign secretary's lawyer, said the judges' stance was "both, in many respects, unnecessary and profoundly damaging to the interests of this country", the Press Association reported.
 

"I would go so far as to say their views were irresponsible," he told the Court of Appeal.

Arrest and torture
Mohamed, 31, an Ethiopian-born British resident, was arrested in Pakistan in April 2002 and accused of receiving training from al Qaeda.
 

He was held for four months when he says he was tortured and abused in the presence of British intelligence officers.
 

In July 2002 he says he was taken to Morocco on a CIA plane and again tortured for 18 months before being taken to Afghanistan, and finally Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. U.S. authorities never charged him and he was returned to Britain in February.
 

London's High Court ruled in August 2008 that the British government must disclose all evidence held against Mohamed but excluded seven sensitive paragraphs supplied by U.S. intelligence services.
 

Judges later said that the United States had threatened to end intelligence cooperation if the evidence of alleged torture was released.

National security issue
However in the October ruling, the High Court said the redacted paragraphs should be published after all. Miliband wants the appeal court to overrule that decision, saying it could fundamentally damage national security.
 

"The request for disclosure by an English court of another country's intelligence material, without its consent, is unprecedented," a Foreign Office spokesman said.
 

"It is vital that we maintain intelligence-sharing relationships with other countries which are integral to our efforts to keep the UK safe, and no other is more important to our security than our relationship with the U.S."
 

Mohamed has been fighting to prove he was tortured and that the British authorities facilitated his detention and knew about the wrongdoing to which he was being subjected.
 

The British government has repeatedly denied its intelligence agents were complicit in overseas torture but police said in September they were investigating an incident involving intelligence agents operating overseas.
 

The Court of Appeal hearing is due to last three days with a decision expected next year.
 

Source: Reuters