MI5 beschuldigd van het samenspannen in marteling van terroristenverdachten
Door Ian Cobain | De ambtenaren van de Dienst van de Veiligheid, MI5, worden beschuldigd van de „delocalisering van“ de marteling van Britse burgers aan een bekend Pakistaans intelligentieagentschap in een poging om informatie over terroristenpercelen te verkrijgen en overtuigingen te beveiligen tegen verdachten al-Qaida.
Een aantal Britse terrorismeverdachten die in Pakistan op verzoek van Britse autoriteiten zijn gearresteerd zeggen hun ondervraging door Veiligheid het Dienst ambtenaar, kort na brutaal marteling bij hand van agent van Pakistan het inter-Dienst Intelligentie agentschap (ISI), heeft overtuigd hen dat MI5 samenspande in mishandeling.
Het hoofdkwartier van Londen van MI5. Foto: Frank Baron
Die mensen hebben gedetailleerde verslag van hun zogenaamde beproevingen bij de handen van ISI in de loop van de laatste vier jaar uitgebracht. Wat van hen schijnen aan het zelfde geheime ondervragingscentrum in Rawalpindi genomen te zijn, waar zij zeggen zij herhaaldelijk alvorens wordt gevraagd door MI5 werden gemarteld.
Tayab Ali, een in Londen-Gebaseerde advocaat voor twee van de bovengenoemde mensen: „Ik word verlaten zonder twijfel dat, bij zeer het slechtst, de Britse Dienst van de Veiligheid de onwettige detentie en de marteling van Britse burgers, en bij de zeer beste draaien een blind oog om aanspoort te martelen.“
Één mens van Manchester zegt dat in 2006 hij werd geslagen, geranseld, arm van slaap en drie vingernagels had die langzaam door ISI agenten op het centrum van Rawalpindi worden gehaald alvorens wordt ondervraagd door twee MI5 ambtenaren. Een aantal zijn zogenaamde vennoten werden tezelfdertijd gevraagd in Manchester en twee werden later aangerekend. Dit man advocaten zegt zijn vingernagels toen zij uiteindelijk werden toegestaan om hem, een meer dan jaar misten te zien nadat hij eerst werd vastgehouden. Zij zeggen zij pathologierapporten hebben die blijken de spijkers zeer sterk werden verwijderd.
Een tweede mens, van Luton, Bedfordshire, beweert dat twee jaar vroeger hij werd geranseld, door zijn polsen werd opgeschort en, werd geslagen en met een elektrische boor, misschien op het zelfde martelingscentrum werd bedreigd. Zijn ondervraging werd gecoördineerd met het vragen van verscheidene vennoten bij Paddington Groene politiepost, West-Londen, en het vragen van een verdere verdachte in Canada.
MI5 betwist meerdere keren het vragen van hem tijdens zijn 10 maanden' detentie in Pakistan niet. At his trial, the judge accepted he had been mistreated but said he believed the claims were exaggerated.
No attempt was made to extradite either man to be questioned by police officers in the UK, and they received no assistance from British consular officials. They were eventually arrested on arrival in Britain after being placed aboard aircraft and flown in without extradition hearings.
The accusation that MI5 is at the very least turning a blind eye to the torture of British citizens - and may have actually colluded in their torture - is to surface in a number of forthcoming court cases, including the trial of the man who lost his fingernails, an appeal lodged by the man from Luton after he was convicted of terrorism offences, and a separate civil action being pursued on his behalf.
MI5 is thought to be considering a defence based on its officers’ insistence that they had no reason to know that the ISI might have been torturing the men - a position that Pakistani lawyers and human rights activists in Pakistan and the UK say beggars belief. Even a high-ranking Scotland Yard counter-terrorism detective has conceded privately that there is little doubt that the Luton man was tortured.
The Guardian is aware of claims by a number of other British citizens that they were tortured after being detained as terrorism suspects in Pakistan.
The allegations being made by these men and their lawyers, which are detailed in today’s Guardian, are expected to be raised by human rights groups. Andrew Tyrie, Conservative MP for Chichester and a campaigner against the abuse of the human rights of terrorism suspects, is considering asking a series of questions about the matter in the Commons.
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.
Last week it was disclosed that eight men freed from US custody at Guantánamo Bay had issued writs against MI5 and the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, alleging they were complicit in their illegal detention and subsequent abuse.
The Security Service declined to comment on the allegations, but pointed to recent reports by the all-party Intelligence and Security Committee, which said all MI5 officers receive training about possible mistreatment of detainees held by foreign intelligence agencies.
The Foreign Office said it was aware of five British citizens being detained in Pakistan over the last four years for questioning about alleged terrorism offences, but would not say how many were detained before 2004. It admitted it had attempted to seek consular access to only two of these people, but declined to say how many had been seen by other British officials.
The FO also declined to say how many had complained of mistreatment, saying: “We have a duty to respect the privacy of the individuals concerned.”
See More:MI5 Torture UK NewsHave Your Say: MI5 accused of colluding in torture of terrorist suspects
Please note, only selected comments will be published.
Or discuss this report in our our new forums
One Response to “MI5 accused of colluding in torture of terrorist suspects”
-
Simon King
Posted: Apr 29th, 2008 at 7:35 am | Link to this
Free Newsletter
Loading ...Related News
- Fourth Briton accuses MI5 of torture
- FSB launches criminal case on officer’s claim to spy for MI6-1
- VIDEO: Ben Griffin Speaks Before Being Gagged
- Intelligence chief condemns ‘waterboarding’ as torture
- Annie Machon: Using our Intelligence
Email This Page To A Friend
Latest Headlines
- Blacksmithing weapons no longer unique
- Breakfast Topic: Your first impressions
- “Settling for less
- Holy Paladin! A 3,000 team/personal rating
- Worldwide Support for Free Media
- Banksy throws London stencil party
- Nepal police detain 100 Tibetan protestors
- Ex-Guantanamo man: “Torture is terrorism”
- Why Gordon Brown should halt ID cards
- Sex offender DNA files expanded
More Breaking News
Archive
MI5 and MI6 have decidedly suspect pasts here in the UK there is annecdotal evidence that the heads of MI5 STELLA RIMINGTON and ELIZA MANNINGHAM-BULLER were involved in MIND CONTROL TECHNIQUES but this was never proved in a court of law and JOHN SCARLETT who was who was purported to be one of the people behind the DODGY DOSSIER on the threat of IRAQ was made head of MI6 in 2003 . What has been proved is that MI6 were forced to pay compensation to its victims of its mind manipulation using LSD just google it . It is unbelieveable too me that MI5 did not at the very least know about these abuses of human rights and too me it is extremely suspect that they chose to interview the suspects in PAKISTAN and not extradite them to the UK where the laws against torture are more strict . As most people now know in the UK that our government lied about rendition flights from the US landing on our soil , although they said that the flights were simply reffuling and transporting suspected terroists but its the destination that is most telling again just google . If the GOVERNMENT has been showed too lie to us do you realy think that various branches of our SPECIAL AND SECRET SERVICES would do any differant and why should they tell us the truth anyway ar we are just the normal populace , sheep as far as they are concerned and they can always hide behind the guise of NATIONAL SECURITY anyway!!! .