The decision by the UK’s coalition government to hold an inquiry into the country’s involvement in torture and rendition was on Wednesday hailed by the Council of Europe as “a proper response” that could offer an example to other nations.
The council’s commissioner for human rights, Thomas Hammarberg, said the inquiry must be “thorough, comprehensive and as open as possible,” but added: “If well done, it could set an example for other countries.”
Hammarberg singled out Sweden, Poland and the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia as states that also needed to establish independent inquiries into complicity in human rights abuses since the al-Qaeda attacks of September 2001. A recent inquiry in Romania had left questions unanswered, he said.
“Other European governments should also initiate investigations,” Hammarberg said. “The time has come to break the conspiracy of silence around the complicity of European governments in the human rights violations which have taken place during the counterterrorism actions since September 2001.”
Hammarberg said more details about systematic torture, secret detentions and other serious human rights violations after 9/11 had emerged.
“It is crucial that lessons are learned and that requires that allegations are investigated and the real facts exposed,” he said. “This is also what the European convention on human rights requires. The positive obligation of states to conduct effective investigations into arguable claims of torture and other ill-treatment is firmly established in the case law of Strasbourg court.”
Before the election, both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats said there needed to be a judicial inquiry into the evidence of British involvement in torture during the “war on terror.”
Last month British Foreign Secretary William Hague confirmed that an inquiry would be established, but has yet to outline what form it will take.
He told the BBC: “We will be setting out in the not-too-distant future what we are going to do about the allegations that have been made about complicity in torture. Will there be an inquiry of some form? Yes, both parties in the coalition said they wanted that. We are working on what form that should take. Proposals on this will follow pretty soon.”
There have been disclosures in the courts and in the media in recent years about the manner in which British intelligence officers were told they could interrogate terrorism suspects they knew were being tortured, and the way in which that secret interrogation policy was used in effect to subcontract torture to overseas intelligence agencies.
There have also been disclosures about the way in which British airspace and facilities were used during the US program of extraordinary rendition and about orders that led to British special forces in Iraq handing over detainees to US forces, despite fears they were to be tortured. In addition, the British army has admitted that at least eight people died in its custody in Iraq, including a number who were being interrogated using illegal techniques such as hooding.
Hammarberg said a number of European states feared that “robust truth-seeking procedures” might damage intelligence-sharing arrangements with the US. He said the Canadian government had demonstrated that effective inquiries could be held without damaging such relationships.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of