Torture appeal lost by UK government

[David Guyatt]

Well, well, well, what's all this then? Amen.

The Bill investigating the Box? Unheard of in my lifetime. Does this suggest that the Brown government and the Mandarins are at war?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/19...CMP=AFCYAH

Police investigate claim MI5 was complicit in Shaker Aamer's torture

Metropolitan police investigate claims the last UK resident held in
Guantánamo Bay was tortured with MI5's knowledge

Richard Norton-Taylor and Vikram Dodd
guardian.co.uk, Friday 19 February 2010 16.24 GMT


Police are investigating claims that MI5 was complicit in the torture of Shaker Aamer who is the last British resident being held at Guantanamo Bay. Photograph: PA

The Metropolitan police is investigating allegations that MI5 was complicit in the torture of Shaker Aamer, the last remaining British resident in Guantánamo Bay, it was revealed today.

Investigating officers have applied to the high court for the release of classified government documents relating to the case. They are already investigating claims of MI5 complicity in the ill-treatment of British resident Binyam Mohamed while being held by the US.

Saudi-born Aamer has accused British security and intelligence officers of being aware of his torture in US custody at Bagram airport prison in Afghanistan. He is also a witness in Mohamed's case.

Aamer, 42, is married to a British national who lives with their four children in London. He has been held by the US for more than seven years without charge.

Meanwhile the human rights watchdog, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission has called for an inquiry into claims that the security services were complicit in the torture of more than 20 terror suspects. The commission's chairman, Trevor Phillips, has written to Jack Straw, the justice secretary, to say the government "needs urgently to put in place a review process to assess the truth or otherwise of all these allegations".

Yesterday Richard Hermer, QC, Aamer's counsel, told the high court that Met officers visited his solicitors, Birnberg Peirce, on Wednesday. He told Mr Justice Sullivan: "It became apparent they are now investigating allegations raised by Mr Aamer into the alleged complicity of the UK security service in his mistreatment." He said the police had made an application to the court "for release of relevant documents". They are understood to relate to allegations that confessions Aamer made were obtained through torture.

The Guantánamo detainee review taskforce is expected to decide soon whether Aamer should be released.

After initially refusing to release the documents, the foreign secretary, David Miliband, recently agreed to hand them over to the US authorities following a high court ruling in Aamer's favour.

Sullivan said today: "These whole proceedings have been a gigantic waste of time and money." He awarded Aamer's lawyers costs against the government, ordering an interim payment of £25,000.

The court was told in earlier hearings that Aamer had been held in Guantánamo since February 2002. It is alleged that on one occasion his head was repeatedly "banged so hard against a wall that it bounced" while an MI5 officer was present. He says he was also threatened with death.

Aamer's solicitor, Gareth Peirce, said today : "It is of central importance and urgency that everything is done to have him returned to this country." She said the government had said it was making strenuous efforts to have him returned, but no diplomatic pressure had been exerted.

Aamer's US lawyer, Brent Mickum, said: "I have seen records of interviews with him by the UK security services …They were fully aware that he was complaining about his treatment and had been tortured."