Scotland Yard is examining allegations that terror suspects, including UK citizens, were tortured with the complicity of MI5, the British security service, and MI6, the secret intelligence service, officers said.
The London Metropolitan Police — known as the Met — has received detailed evidence relating to the abuse of detainees involving UK intelligence agents, raising the possibility that its criminal inquiry into the alleged mistreatment of Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed could be widened to include more than two dozen torture cases.
A 55-page dossier submitted by lawyers to the Met last week includes claims of UK involvement in 29 cases, including Mohamed’s, of mistreatment or torture against UK citizens or residents. Each is supported by testimony from victims, dates, locations and in some cases, details of the UK intelligence officers who questioned them.
Last week Vera Baird, the solicitor general, told the British parliament: “If there are more [cases] , they will be looked at with the utmost care, with a view to ensuring that, if there is possible criminality, the police will investigate.”
Former shadow home secretary David Davis said: “The police will have no choice but to investigate all these cases.”
Compiled over four years by lawyers acting for UK monitoring group Cageprisoner, the dossier corroborates claims that Britain was involved in a systemic international torture policy, with one case predating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, going back as far as 1999. Six countries are named as being complicit with the UK, including Jordan, Egypt and Syria. Four cases relate to Kenya and the most — seven — involve Pakistan.
The claims come days after the Met was summoned by the attorney-general, Patricia Scotland, to examine allegations that MI5 colluded in the torture of Mohamed by feeding the CIA questions while he was held in a secret prison. Details of another 28 cases, which Cageprisoner said were equally compelling, would heighten calls for a judicial inquiry.
A Met source confirmed they were “considering the contents” of the report while they waited for Scotland to forward documentary evidence into Mohamed’s case. He said the investigation into Mohamed had yet to start, and it was theoretically possible detectives could examine torture complicity allegations as part of a broader inquiry.
Human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce said the true nature of British involvement was becoming a “burning issue” and it was vital the “state is held properly and publicly to account.”
“It was they [the British] who provided information that could be and was used in conditions of torture, and it was and is they who have received the product,” she said.
A spokesman for Cageprisoner said Scotland would also be asked to investigate alleged MI5 complicity in the questioning of men who said they were tortured, the majority while in US custody abroad.
It comes as MPs prepare the most comprehensive examination of Britain’s role in human rights abuses, focusing on claims of complicity in torture and concern that officials have contravened international law.
Cases in the report include details of UK intelligence officers involved in their questioning, such as their physical description and names. Examples of maltreatment include death threats, ferocious beatings and established torture techniques such as strappado, in which the victims’ hands are tied behind their back and they are then suspended in the air by a rope attached to their wrists, which typically dislocates both arms.
The earliest case involves Farid Hilali, who claims he was tortured on the “direct orders” of UK intelligence. Wanted in Spain over alleged links to the Sept. 11 attackers, Hilali said the alleged torture took place while he was held by the intelligence services of the United Arab Emirates and Morocco. His testimony describes a “white British male.”
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of