Mohamed was arrested in Pakistan in April 2002 and taken to Morocco by the CIA. He was transferred via Afghanistan and Bagram air base and arrived at Guantánamo in September 2004. Last June US authorities charged him over an alleged al-Qaida plot to detonate a dirty bomb in American apartment buildings. Three months later the charges were dropped. Here are some extracts from Mohamed's diary, as told to lawyer Clive Stafford Smith.

Morocco "torture prison"

Sunday 28 July 2002

They [my interrogators] asked about a heritage centre [a mosque] in north Kensington, about five minutes from where I lived, where I worked from October 2000 to about May 2001. They showed me pictures and asked about people who had been there.

Tuesday 30 July 2002

Today I was questioned about my links with Britain. The interrogator told me that we have been working with the British, and we have photos of people given to us by MI5. "Do you know these?"

Sunday 4 August 2002

They had brought pictures, all of British people. "This is the British file," they said. Sarah [an interrogator] picked up the pictures of two British people and told their whole story, about how they were suspected of being al-Qaida.

Wednesday 7 August 2002 (night)

It was then that the circle of torture began. They'd ask me a question. I'd say one thing. They'd say it was a lie. I'd say another. They'd say it was a lie. I could not work out what they wanted to hear.

They'd say there's this guy who says you're the big man in al-Qaida. I'd say it's a lie. They'd torture me. I'd say, okay it's true. That night the same people came back. The same guy punched me till I couldn't stand. I was making noises, groaning, I couldn't breathe.

August 2002, exact date unknown

They cut off my clothes with some kind of doctor's scalpel. I was totally naked. I was afraid to ask Marwan [interrogator] what would happen, because it would show fear. I tried to put on a brave face. But maybe I was going to be raped. Maybe they'd electrocute me. Maybe castrate me.

One of them took my penis in his hand and began to make cuts. He did it once, and they stood still for maybe a minute, watching my reaction. I was in agony, crying, trying desperately to suppress myself, but I was screaming. They must have done this 20 to 30 times, in maybe two hours. There was blood all over.

September 2002

They cuffed me and put earphones on my head. They played hip-hop and rock music, very loud. I remember they played Meatloaf and Aerosmith over and over. I hated that.

Afghanistan 'dark prison', Kabul

22 January 2004

They knocked my head against a wall a few times until I could feel blood, then I was thrown into a cell. It was cell number 16 or 17, the second or third last room from the shower room.

Interrogation was right from the start. The CIA worked on people, including me, day and night for the months before I left. Plenty lost their minds. I could hear people knocking their heads against the walls and the doors, screaming their heads off.

Guantánamo Bay

May 2005

I want to get out of this hellish cell, and back to my home on the Golborne Road [north Kensington, London].