If the official UK government line is that torture is an abhorrence that degrades justice, serious allegations of collusion in torture must be properly investigated, said The Observer in an editorial yesterday. Excerpts:
The official position is clear enough. “The British government abhors torture and would never authorize it or condone it,” says the foreign secretary. That, ideally, would go without saying, just as the case against torture should not need spelling out. But it does, because the message may not have been adequately understood by the security services in their pursuit of intelligence in the “war on terror”.
A report due to be published next month alleges systematic collusion between British personnel and Pakistani security services in the maltreatment of terror suspects. The report, by respected civil liberties group Human Rights Watch, cites intelligence sources who claim a number of MI5 officers have interrogated suspects, including Britons, who were earlier tortured by Pakistani officials. That allegation echoes claims by a number of detainees in sites used for US anti-terror operations that British security officers have put questions to torture victims or provided lines of interrogation for torturers to pursue.
The British government shows little willingness to be examined on this matter. The security services have conducted internal inquiries and, unsurprisingly, cleared themselves of wrongdoing. Meanwhile, the attorney general is considering evidence of alleged UK complicity in torture in a single case — that of Binyam Mohamed, a former British resident. That case may then be referred to police for investigation. Or not. The AG may yet take the view — as no doubt her Cabinet colleagues would like — that there are no grounds to pursue the matter further. The official government line is clear: That torture is an abhorrence that degrades justice. But for that policy to be credible, serious allegations of collusion in torture must be properly investigated.
