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MI5 accused of colluding in torture of terrorist suspects
Ellen Widdup, Evening Standard29 Apr 2008
MI5 has been accused of turning a blind eye to the torture of British nationals - and in some cases colluding in their severe treatment.
A number of terrorist suspects have claimed that agents belonging to the organisation employed officers at Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence to torture them before they were questioned.
According to detailed accounts of the alleged ordeals, many of the acts of torture appear to have taken place at the same secret interrogation centre in Rawalpindi.
One of the suspects, a 33-year-old man from Manchester - who claims to have had three fingernails ripped out after hours of being beaten and whipped - said the torture and questioning followed a set pattern.
The suspect, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said Pakistani agents from the ISI would ask a series of questions under torture. The torture would then stop and British agents would enter the room and ask the same set of questions to which he would give the same answers.
He said British agents would then leave and the Pakistani officials would ask a new set of questions under torture. This would continue for several hours.
Tayab Ali, a London-based lawyer who is working on two cases of alleged torture interrogation, said that the particulars surrounding such cases suggested MI5 had colluded-with the officers at the ISI. "I am left with no doubt that, at the very worst, the British Security Service instigates the illegal detention and torture of British citizens, and at the very best turns a blind eye to torture," he said. Salahuddin Amin, from Luton, alleges he was whipped, suspended by his wrists from the ceiling and threatened with an electric drill after surrendering to the ISI in 2004.
Amin, who was later given a life sentence for supplying terrorists who wanted to blow up the Ministry of Sound nightclub in south-east London and Bluewater shopping centre in Kent with an explosives formula, said he was kept prisoner in Pakistan for 10 months before he was taken to Britain.
He said no attempt was made to extradite him and he received no assistance from British consular officials during this time.
Describing his treatment, he said: "They were constantly hitting me and swearing at me. I was in extreme pain. I felt as if my skin was ripping apart."
MI5 does not deny questioning him several times during his detention and at his trial the judge accepted he had been mistreated but said he believed the claims had been exaggerated.
Amin and the suspect from Manchester have lodged appeals and civil actions against MI5 regarding their treatment.
Under the Criminal Justice Act 1988 it is an offence for British officials to instigate or consent to the inflicting of "severe pain or suffering" on any person, anywhere in the world, or even to acquiesce in such treatment.
Any such offence could be punished by life imprisonment.
Reader views (1)
Well done lads; keep up the good work.
- Squiz, Islington, 29/04/2008 20:40
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