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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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March 26th,
2009 - Police to Investigate Mohamed Claims of MI5 Torture Complicity |
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Police to Investigate Binyam
Mohamed Claims of MI5 Torture Complicity Former Guantánamo Bay detainee welcomes inquiry and promises his
co-operation By David Pallister The Guardian March 26, 2009 Former Guantánamo Bay detainee
Binyam Mohamed has welcomed the announcement that the Metropolitan police
have been called in to investigate whether MI5 agents were complicit in his
torture, and promised to co-operate with the inquiry. The attorney general, Lady
Scotland, said in a written statement today that she had given the
allegations of possible criminal wrongdoing "very serious
consideration" and felt there were sufficient grounds to launch a
criminal investigation. But she stopped short of conceding a full judicial
inquiry, which many critics have demanded. Mohamed, an Ethiopian-born
UK resident, said on his release in February that he had been "tortured
in medieval ways" since his detention in 2002. "I'm very pleased that
there's going to be an independent investigation," he told the Guardian
today. "I remain concerned that the investigations shouldn't just focus
on the small people and that one agent shouldn't be the scapegoat for what
was a government policy. I understand that the investigation will include the
people directly responsible for the torture, the Americans, and this is
obviously very important." The attorney general said a
decision on criminal charges would be taken following the police
investigation. Scotland said the evidence she had reviewed included "the
open and closed judgments of the divisional court in the case; transcripts of
all the evidence given by witness B; the other evidence and submissions made
to the court; the foreign secretary's PII [public interest immunity]
certificates; and material from third parties about the case." Witness B was an MI5 officer
who gave evidence in a judicial review in the high court last year. He told
the court about a high-level policy on how to handle the interrogation of
suspects. He said: "I was aware
that the general question of interviewing detainees had been discussed at
length by security service management, legal advisers and government, and I
acted in this case, as in others, under the strong impression that it was
considered to be proper and lawful." Following Scotland's
statement, Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, said the security and
intelligence agencies would "co-operate fully" with the
investigation. "Wherever allegations of wrongdoing are made, they are
taken seriously," she said. Mohamed was questioned after
being seized at Karachi airport in April 2002 travelling on a false passport.
He was sent to an interrogation centre where, he says, he was hung up for a
week by a leather strap around his wrists. Among his interrogators were
officials from the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He was later visited by two
British intelligence officers, one called John. The torture stopped when they
came, Mohamed said. He said John told him: "I'll see what we can do with
the Americans." He did not see John again. Mohamed was flown to Morocco
after being held incommunicado in Pakistan, where he was interrogated by an
MI5 officer. From Morocco, he was rendered to Kabul's notorious CIA prison
where he says he was held in darkness for weeks on end. He says that was the
worst time in his seven years in US captivity. MI5 telegrams to the CIA
show security service officers fed the US with information on Mohamed when he
was allegedly being tortured in Morocco. MI5 has said it did not know where he
was or in what conditions because the CIA refused to say. Among those calling for a
judicial inquiry is Sir Ken Macdonald, the former director of public
prosecutions, who said that only an inquiry would be "sufficiently
transparent to attract public confidence". "If crimes have been
committed, to deal with them alone would amount to scapegoating and would, in
any event, only scratch at the surface of the problem," he said. Others have questioned the
extent and rigour of Scotland's review. Shami Chakrabarti, the
director of the civil liberties group Liberty, said: "Whilst many will
see the attorney general's announcement as coming better late than never, the
five-month delay in reporting such a serious suspected offence to the police
is far from an ideal example of respect for the law," she said. "We look forward to the
Metropolitan police investigation into this particular case but the wider
public interest still requires a full judicial inquiry into all British
involvement in extraordinary rendition." External link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/26/binyam-mohamed-torture-solicitor-general |