LONDON, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- A Briton accused of being an al-Qaida terrorist says he endured more than two years of torture at U.S. "ghost prisons" before being moved to Guantanamo Bay.
Benyam Mohammed says he was moved around a series of prisons in Pakistan, Morocco and Afghanistan, before being sent to the Cuban camp last September.
The 26-year-old from Notting Hill in west London is alleged to be a key figure in terrorist bomb plots, including a plan to detonate a "dirty bomb" in a U.S. city, an allegation he denies.
In a statement given to his newly appointed lawyer and reported in the Guardian Tuesday, Mohammed gave an account of how he was tortured after being interrogated by U.S. and British officials. As well as being beaten and covered with what he described as burning liquid, Mohammed says he was regularly cut with a scalpel, including on his genitals.
Recruits to some al-Qaida linked groups are thought to be instructed to allege torture when captured.
However, Mohammed's description of a prison near Rabat in Morocco closely resembles that of Temara torture center, identified by Human Rights Watch last October.
The Guardian also obtained flight records showing executive jets operated by the CIA flew in and out of Morocco on July 22, 2002, and Jan. 22, 2004, the dates Mohammed says he was taken to and from the country.
