British government under pressure over torture claims

September 11th, 2009 UK police to investigate spy over torture claimLONDON — Britain's foreign intelligence agency MI6 reported one of its officers to authorities amid new concerns over the country's possible complicity in torture, prompting police to launch an investigation Friday, officials said. MI6 referred an incident to the government's chief legal adviser, Patricia Scotland, who ruled police should carry out an inquiry, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said.

September 11th, 2009 UK police probe spy agency MI6 on torture claimLONDON — British police are investigating an allegation that the country's MI6 overseas spy agency was complicit in torture, the second inquiry launched in recent months examining the conduct of the country's spies. Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who oversees MI6, said the agency had referred a case to the government's chief legal adviser Patricia Scotland, who ruled that police should carry out an inquiry.

September 11th, 2009 UK: Police to investigate MI6 over torture claimLONDON — British police say they are investigating an allegation that the country's foreign spy agency was complicit in torture. Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who oversees MI6, said Friday the agency had referred a case itself to the country's chief legal adviser, who ruled police should carry out an inquiry.

September 9th, 2009 LONDON - Internal British Foreign Office e-mails have revealed that officials failed to act on claims by two British men that they had been tortured by Pakistani Police in Pakistan and were forced to confess to murder. According to a Sky News report, which accessed the e-mails, Rehan Zaman and Naheem Hussain had informed the British Government about being tortured in Mirpur, Pakistan, but the officials took months to follow-up on the claims.

August 13th, 2009 UN expert receives claims of prison abuse in IranGENEVA — A U.N. anti-torture investigator said Thursday he has received credible claims that Iranian protesters detained after the June 12 presidential elections were abused in prison.

August 11th, 2009 LONDON - The British Government has said that an inquiry into whether Britain's intelligence services have been involved indirectly in the torture of terrorist suspects by foreign agencies is not necessary. The decision follows after the head of MI6, Sir John Scarlett, publicly insisted that none of his intelligence officers could be accused of complicit involvement in torture.

August 10th, 2009 LONDON - Two senior British ministers on Sunday said they could not rule out that vital anti-terror information had been obtained through the torture of suspects abroad. In the wake of this disclosure, campaigners have called for a judicial inquiry against British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Home Secretary Alan Johnson, even as they both strongly denied allegations of British collusion in the abuse of terror suspects overseas.

August 10th, 2009 LONDON - The head of Britain's MI6, Sir John Scarlett, has insisted that the British secret service works on a basis of "no torture and no complicity in torture". "Our officers are as committed to the values and the human rights values of liberal democracy as anybody else," Scarlett told the BBC Radio 4 programme.

August 4th, 2009 British lawmakers seek inquiry into torture claimsLONDON — The British government has refused to answer questions about whether its spies were complicit in the torture of terrorist suspects, and only an independent inquiry can clear the air and restore public confidence, a committee of lawmakers said Tuesday. Government officials say Britain does not condone or participate in torture, but officials have avoided answering specific allegations that Britain participated indirectly by obtaining intelligence from suspects who had been tortured overseas, or sending agents to visit suspects who suffered mistreatment in foreign facilities.

August 4th, 2009 LONDON - British intelligence agencies, MI5 and MI6, have been accused of being "woefully unaccountable" for allegedly using torture methods of questioning detainees overseas. The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights has called for a public inquiry into allegations of torture, The Telegraph reports.

July 10th, 2009 UK police investigating Gitmo detainee's claimsLONDON — Police said Friday they have launched a criminal investigation to determine if British intelligence officers were aware of the treatment of a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who claims he was tortured while being detained in Guantanamo, Pakistan and Morocco. Binyam Mohamed — an Ethiopian who moved to Britain as a teenager — was arrested as a suspected terrorist in 2002 in Karachi, Pakistan, and alleges that during three months of detention he was tortured by Pakistani agents and interrogated by the FBI and MI5, Britain's domestic security agency.

July 7th, 2009 LONDON - The British Security Service, MI5 has been accused of attempting to bribe a man who was jailed on terrorism charges, in a bid to persuade him to withdraw his custodial torture complaints. Rangzieb Ahmed had three of his fingernails ripped out after MI5 and Greater Manchester police (GMP) drew up a list of questions for officers from a notorious Pakistani intelligence agency.

June 11th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Tariqur Rehman, one of the 10 Pakistan students arrested by British officials in a country wide terror crackdown has returned to Pakistan. Talking to media persons upon his arrival in Islamabad, Rehman charged the British officials with treating the students as hardcore criminals during detention.

May 27th, 2009 LONDON - British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is likely to face legal action over allegations that MI5 agents colluded in the torture of a British former civil servant by Bangladeshi intelligence officers. According to The Telegraph, lawyers for the British man, Jamil Rahman, are to file a damages claim alleging that Smith was complicit in assault, unlawful arrest, false imprisonment and breaches of human rights legislation over his alleged ill-treatment while detained in Bangladesh.

February 23rd, 2009 LONDON - A forthcoming human rights report says British agents colluded with their Pakistani counterparts in the routine torture of British - and Pakistani - terror suspects, a newspaper reported Sunday. A study to be published next month by the civil liberties group Human Rights Watch (HRW) says at least 10 Britons are identified who have been allegedly tortured in Pakistan and subsequently questioned by British intelligence officials, the Observer said.