Scotland Yard to investigate 'collusion' by MI5 in torture

Published on Thursday 26 March 2009 21:07

SCOTLAND Yard will investigate claims that MI5 agents colluded in the torture abroad of a UK resident, Binyam Mohamed, after a four-month study of evidence surrounding the allegations.

Metropolitan Police detectives have been ordered to launch a criminal investigation by Baroness Scotland, the Attorney General, after she and Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, scrutinised "substantive material" including the testimony of an MI5 officer.

"I have concluded that the appropriate course of action is to invite the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police to commence an investigation into the allegations that have been made in relation to Binyam Mohamed," she told the House of Lords yesterday.

"I have expressed to the commissioner the hope that the investigation can be taken forward as expeditiously as possible given the seriousness and sensitivity of the issues involved."

The unprecedented decision will give credence to concerns about British complicity in torture and rendition.

However, the police investigation stops short of the full judicial inquiry wanted by human rights campaigners.

Lawyers for Mr Mohamed, who was last month released from Guantanamo Bay after seven years of detention across three continents, have said that MI5 agents were complicit in his torture and rendition.

It had been alleged that British agents gave ideas about lines of interrogation to take and ignored Mr Mohamed's claims of torture at the hands of his captors while visiting him abroad.

He said that 70 per cent of the questions put to him while he was in detention in Morocco came from sources in Britain.

Mr Mohamed was picked up while flying from Pakistan to London in 2002 after a trip to Afghanistan. He was accused by Americans of plotting a bombing – a claim he has denied.

The 31-year-old said he had been tortured at centres in Morocco, Pakistan and Afghanistan. He was transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2004, where he was held until his release.

Police were yesterday given the power to question spies about what they knew and review secret papers.

However, if any agent is found to have broken British law, the case will be heard behind closed doors.

Speaking from Brazil, Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, gave his backing to the investigation. "I have always made clear that when serious allegations are made, they have got to be investigated.

"I have also been clear that this government does not tolerate or endorse torture."

David Cameron, the Conservative leader, said he was not certain the police investigation would "remove this potential stain from Britain's name".

He said: "I think we will need some form of wider inquiry to find out whether the right procedures and processes were in place to prevent Britain from being complicit in torture."

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg called for a full judicial inquiry.