|
The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
|
July 28th,
2009 - Diego Garcia Rendition Victim Challenges UK in Court |
|
Diego Garcia Rendition
Victim Challenges UK in Court By Afua Hirsch The Guardian July 28, 2009 The government is refusing
to provide details of the torture and wrongful detention of a man rendered
through British territory, it was claimed today, depriving him of a remedy
for "serious civil and criminal wrongdoing". Mohammed Madni, who was
arrested in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2002, is thought to be one of the two men
the foreign secretary, David Miliband, admitted last year were rendered
through the British Indian Ocean island Diego Garcia. Milliband was forced to
admit that the rendition, by the US, had used British territory, but has
resisted calls that the identity of the men should be revealed and an apology
issued. "I defy the British
government to deny that Madni was the person taken through Diego
Garcia," said Clive Stafford Smith, founder of the charity Reprieve,
which represents Madni. "Until the government admits this, it can't be
said with absolutely proof. But the question for the British government is
why not? Why not admit to the victim that you did it?" He said detailed research
and "a process of elimination" showed that Madni was one of the
individuals rendered through Diego Garcia in 2002. Speaking today by phone from
Pakistan, Madni said he had been arrested in Jakarta for being "in the wrong
place at the wrong time" - a fact borne out, his lawyers say, by his
eventual release without charge after six years in detention at Guantánamo
Bay. Madni says he was put in a
coffin while being taken from Indonesia to Diego Garcia; then he says he was
taken to Egypt, where he claims he was made to stand for 92 days and was
tortured with electric cattle prods. "I would like the British people to
know the truth about what happened to me … Rules should be set in place so
that this doesn't happen again," he said. The case will be launched in
the high court next week, it was announced today. The government has come
under increasing pressure since admitting Diego Garcia's involvement in the
renditions last year, after numerous previous denials. Today, the Foreign Office
refused to confirm whether Madni was one of the individuals rendered through
the Diego Garcia base. "As the foreign secretary made clear in his
statements to the house last year, these flights passed through Diego Garcia
in 2002 without the UK's knowledge or permission," a spokesperson said.
"We were only informed about the flights in February 2008. "That rendition flights
had passed through UK territory was contrary to previous explicit assurances
we had received from the US. "We have made our
disappointment about these flights clear with the US and secured firm new
assurances that on no other occasion since 11 September 2001 has a US
intelligence flight with a detainee on board passed through UK
territory," the spokesperson added. "With regard to the individuals
concerned, we are unable to add anything to the information provided by the
foreign secretary. The US government have confirmed that neither of the
individuals was a British national or a British resident, and that both have
been released." But Stafford Smith
questioned the government's claim that it did not know about the flights,
saying that an obligation had arisen once the Foreign Office became aware of
the flights to Diego Garcia. "As of February 2008
the British government had a legal and moral obligation to set right the
details of what happened to Madni," he said. "In the case of Binyam
Mohammed they refused to do this, and British judges set them straight. We
anticipate that in Madni's case they will do the same." Earlier this month it
emerged that the interrogation of Mohammed, a British resident released from
Guantánamo Bay this year after seven years, would be investigated by the
police after the high court ruled there was evidence that MI5 officers had
colluded in his torture. The case was welcomed by
critics of the government's failure to reveal further details of renditions. "The litigation will
contribute to the growing amount of information on rendition and British
involvement in it," said Andrew Tyrie MP, the chairman of the all-party
parliamentary group on extraordinary rendition. "But the drip-drip of
revelations about UK involvement in renditions is hugely damaging. Critics said the case would
add to calls for a judicial inquiry, already supported by the Conservative
leader, David Cameron, and the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation,
Lord Carlile. "A judge-led inquiry … is now the only way to give the
public confidence that we have got to the bottom of all this," Tyrie
said. External link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/28/rendition-territory-diego-garcia |