Alleged torture victim to take MI5 to court

[joeblow]

Alleged torture victim to take MI5 to court

http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=9 ... =351020601
Wed, 27 May 2009 09:27:10 GMT


British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith faces new torture allegations.

British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith faces legal action over allegations that she allowed the torture of a Briton held on suspicion of terrorism in Bangladesh.

Former civil servant Jamil Rahman is suing Smith in relation to assault, unlawful arrest, false imprisonment and breaches of human rights legislation during his detention in Bangladesh, the Guardian reported on Wednesday.

Rahman claims that a pair of MI5 officers were blatantly involved in his ordeal, interrogating him in between beatings by Bangladeshi intelligence forces.

The British officers -- who called themselves Andrew and Liam and said that they were from the MI5 -- would leave the room if he did not co-operate, during which time he would be severely beaten, Rahman said.

He added that they threatened to rape and murder his wife and that he was thus forced to confess to a number of terrorist offences -- one of which was that he masterminded the 2005 terror attacks in London.

Rahman and his wife were released three weeks after their arrest in December 2005, only to be questioned many more times over the next two years by MI5 and detectives from Scotland Yard.

The 31-year-old, who remains deeply traumatized, returned to the UK last year and embarked upon legal action once his wife and child were able to join him earlier this month.

Rahman's lawyer claims to have a wealth of evidence, including eyewitness testimony and medical information, to support his allegations.

Smith and MI5 have declined to comment.

The Home Office, meanwhile, claim that British security forces neither condone nor use torture, adding that the government would respond to the allegations "in due course".

Rahman's allegations follow recent claims of British collusion in the torture of a British citizen in Egypt and growing evidence that MI5 officers have aided and abetted the torture of several people in Pakistan.

FF/AA