THE BRITISH government again stands accused of “complicity in rendition and torture” following defence secretary John Hutton’s admission that British forces in Iraq delivered two terror suspects to the US who were then flown to Afghanistan for interrogation.
Mr Hutton said details of the 2004 incident had come to light following a lengthy review of detentions in Iraq and Afghanistan which had already identified errors in information previously given to parliament.
He said “brief references” to this case had been included in papers sent to then foreign and home secretaries Jack Straw and Charles Clarke in April 2006, although its significance had not been highlighted to the ministers at the time.
The review of detainees held by British forces since 2003 had uncovered the case of the two alleged members of Lashkar e Tayyiba, a proscribed organisation linked to al-Qaeda, and established that British officials were aware of their “transfer” to American custody in 2004.
In retrospect, said Mr Hutton, “it is clear to me that the transfer to Afghanistan of these two individuals should have been questioned at the time”.
Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti has led calls for an inquiry, declaring “this was rendition” involving the transfer of prisoners of a kind previously routinely denied by ministers.
“When secrets about British complicity in rendition and torture continue to seep out, it is as damaging to government as to our reputation in the world,” she said.
“A judicial inquiry into this whole poisonous episode is the only hope for lancing the boil and moving on.”
With the two terror suspects still held in Afghanistan, where they are classified as “unlawful enemy combatants”, former Conservative shadow home secretary David Davis said the case represented “the latest in a series of issues where the government has been less than straightforward” in respect of allegations of torture.
Just days after the release of former British resident Binyam Mohammed from Guantanamo amid allegations that British security services colluded in his torture, Mr Hutton maintained there was no substantiated evidence that the Afghanistan detainees had been mistreated or abused.
“We have been assured that the detainees are held in a humane, safe and secure environment meeting international standards consistent with cultural and religious norms,” he said.
Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the All Party Group on Extraordinary Rendition, however, said US assurances on torture were “unreliable” and backed calls for an inquiry.
“Given that all previous assurances have been baseless, we can have no confidence in the ones that we are being given now,” he said. “The government must carry out a comprehensive inquiry in order to bring closure to this sorry business.”
Conservative spokesman Crispin Blunt stopped short of calling for an inquiry, saying that while this case appeared to represent a “specific rather than a systemic failure”, the underlying suggestion of “complicity with serious abuse of people detained by British forces” overseas was “of serious concern”.