{"id":2998,"date":"2008-04-18T23:21:35","date_gmt":"2008-04-18T23:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/war-terrorism\/guantanamo-bay-eight-sue-british-secret-service\/2998\/"},"modified":"2008-04-18T23:21:35","modified_gmt":"2008-04-18T23:21:35","slug":"guantanamo-bay-eight-sue-british-secret-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/war-terrorism\/guantanamo-bay-eight-sue-british-secret-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Guantanamo Bay eight sue British secret service"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fiona Hamilton<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>The three men from Tipton launched a lawsuit against the American authorities two years ago, alleging they were mistreated during their time in captivity. The US Court of Appeal dismissed their action earlier this year but they are appealing to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

\"Military
\nThe eight men were detained in Afghanistan and Pakistan at various times<\/em><\/p>\n

Eight men freed from Guantanamo Bay are suing the British Government for millions of pounds, claiming that it was complicit in the process in which they were detained and sent for interrogation at the detention camp.<\/p>\n

The group have issued writs against MI5 and MI6 and said that the British authorities had knowledge of their illegal abduction, treatment and interrogation.<\/p>\n

The eight men were detained in Afghanistan and Pakistan at various times. It is understood that they claim that the British authorities were aware that they would be removed to Guantanamo but nonetheless continued to co-operate with the Americans. The Daily Mail last night reported that two separate writs had been lodged by the group, with five Britons and three foreign citizens naming \u201cThe Security Services\u201d, \u201cThe Secret Intelligence Agency\u201d and \u201cThe Attorney-General\u201d as defendants.<\/p>\n

The first writ was issued at the High Court in London by lawyers acting for Omar Deghayes, a Libyan, Jamil el-Banna, a Jordanian \u2013 both released last December \u2013 and Bisher al-Rawi, an Iraqi, released this year. All three men live in Britain but are foreign nationals.<\/p>\n

The second names five Britons as claimants: Moazzam Begg, released in 2005, Richard Belmar, and the so-called \u201cTipton Three\u201d \u2013 Ruhal Ahmed, Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal. All were released in previous years.<\/p>\n

The newspaper reported that one of the eight men claimed that the group were put on CIA \u201ctorture flights\u201d to the prison camp in Cuba.<\/p>\n

The Government has faced calls recently to order an independent inquiry into the process, known as \u201cextraordinary rendition\u201d, in which terrorism suspects are sent for interrogation in states where they have no legal protection.<\/p>\n

Irene Membhard, a solicitor with Birnberg Pierce, confirmed that writs had been issued on behalf of the men. She told the Daily Mail: \u201cService is not imminent but watch this space within the next two months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Begg, who was arrested by the CIA in Pakistan in 2002, said that the case would centre on the \u201cgeneral behaviour and complicity in the abuse of British citizens\u201d by MI5 and MI6.<\/p>\n

Mr Begg, from Birmingham, told the newspaper: \u201cIt is actual involvement in some cases, in the process of interrogation, in the process of us being handed over. It is culpability by the British authorities in being involved in most of the process, their presence on every step of the journey before we got to Guantanamo.\u201d<\/p>\n

The eight men were all re-arrested when they returned to Britain but freed without charge.<\/p>\n

News of the lawsuits came as it was reported that America\u2019s most senior general was \u201choodwinked\u201d by officials in the Bush Administration in relation to interrogation procedures at the prison.<\/p>\n

The Guardian reported that General Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2001 to 2005, wrongly believed that inmates at Guantanamo were protected by the Geneva conventions. It said that he was duped by senior officials in Washington who believed that the Geneva conventions and other traditional safeguards were out of date.<\/p>\n

The disclosures were contained in a new book by Philippe Sands, QC, a professor at University College London. The book, Torture Team, also claims that the Guantanamo lawyers charged with devising interrogation techniques were inspired by the character Jack Bauer, from the television series 24.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fiona Hamilton The three men from Tipton launched a lawsuit against the American authorities two years ago, alleging they were mistreated during their time in captivity. The US Court of Appeal dismissed their action earlier this year but they are appealing to the Supreme Court. The eight men were detained in Afghanistan and Pakistan at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1615,16],"tags":[33,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-2998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uk-news","7":"category-war-terrorism","8":"tag-guantanamo","9":"tag-uk-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2998\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}