[JURIST] Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer [official website] has conceded that claims by Mahdouh Habib [Prisoners Without Trials profile], a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, that he was tortured while held in Egypt may be true. Downer, who made the comments during a radio interview Monday, was responding to an interview Habib gave over the weekend, in which he alleged that he was tortured during the three years he has been imprisoned since being detained in Pakistan in 2001. Habib also alleged that his torture was witnessed by an Australian official in Pakistan. Downer said there was no way to confirm the allegations of torture in Egypt since the Egyptian government has not admitted to detaining Habib. Habib was released [JURIST report] from Guantanamo Bay without charge several weeks ago, but the US has maintained he has ties to al-Qaida. Read a transcript of Downer's interview. AFP has more.