British torture in Iraq claims challenged
Iraq-UK, Politics, 9/14/2007

Human rights lawyer Phil Shiner yesterday disputed British Foreign Office claim that the "government, including its intelligence and security agencies, never use torture for any purpose."

"Evidence in the public domain from the court martial into the death of Baha Mousa and the serious abuse of 10 other Iraqi civilians is clear in establishing this is not true," Shiner said.

"UK armed forces went into Iraq with a written policy that allowed hooding, and with a policy of training interrogators to use hooding, stressing and sleep deprivation to gain intelligence," he said in a letter to the Guardian newspaper.

His evidence comes as Britain's MI5 and MI6 security and intelligence services are being sued for the tactics they used against one of the country's citizens, while he was held in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.

Tarek Dergoul who claims he was repeatedly tortured while he was held by the US, and that British agents, who had also questioned him, were aware of the mistreatment.

He is seeking not just an effective ban on torture but also is seeking a high court ruling that will prevent Britain's security services from "benefiting" from the abuse of prisoners, while being held in detention outside the UK.

"It was clear that agents of the UK state were routinely engaged in hooding and stressing in Iraq," Shiner said. Public records, he said, show that civil servants at the UK's permanent joint HQ were still debating in May 2004 whether to comply with a 1972 ban.

He suggested that either UK authorities did not think hooding and stressing in conditions of 60 degrees centigrade is within the legal definition of "torture" or that the UN convention against torture does not have extraterritorial effect.

In response to the Dergoul case, the Foreign Office said it could not comment on ongoing legal proceedings but repeated that the UK "unreservedly condemns the use of torture." "The British government, including its intelligence and security agencies, never use torture for any purpose, including obtaining information, nor would we instigate actions by others to do so," it insisted.

Previous Stories:
  UK urged to redefine objectives in Iraq   (7/16/2007)
  UK Conservatives for inquiry into Iraq war   (7/2/2007)
  UK leader denies urging apology for Iraq war   (6/25/2007)
  UK forces Hercules damaged by roadside bomb in Iraq   (2/21/2007)
  UK soldier was killed by other UK soldiers in Iraq   (11/27/2006)
  UK troops in Iraq under increasing attacks   (5/23/2006)

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