UK: Move to withhold evidence in MI5/MI6 torture collusion claim
Flashback: UK: New evidence in Binyam Mohamed torture case | UK: Secrets of CIA ‘ghost flights’ to be revealed | UK: CIA ‘put pressure on Britain to cover up its use of torture’ | Revealed – the secret torture evidence MI5 tried to suppress | Guantanamo’s closure window dressing – overseas CIA ‘black sites’ to stay | ‘If I didn’t confess to 7/7 bombings MI5 officers would rape my wife,’ claims torture victim | MI5 faces fresh torture allegations | UK: Government makes ‘unprecedented’ apology for covering up Binyam torture | Obama administration: Guantanamo detainees have ‘no constitutional rights’ | Obama backs Bush: No rights for Bagram prisoners | U.K. resident held at Gitmo alleges Canadian involvement in torture
Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian
October 27, 2009
Any evidence of MI5 and MI6 involvement in torture of Guantánamo Bay Britons now seeking damages must be heard in secret, court told
 |
| Former British resident Binyam Mohamed, second left, who has been held at Guantanamo Bay steps from a plane at Northolt military base in west London Monday 23 February 2009. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/AP |
Any evidence of MI5 and MI6 involvement in the rendition and torture of Britons now seeking damages must be heard behind closed doors, the government told the high court today.
In a move with profound implications for how the security and intelligence agencies can be held to account, ministers want the evidence to be withheld from the victims of illegal activities and their lawyers.
It is the first time the government has asked the courts to rule that evidence should be kept secret in a civil case involving claims for damages. “I entirely accept [it] is a departure” from the normal course of such litigation, Jonathan Crow QC, for the agencies, the Home Office, the Foreign Office and the attorney general, told Mr Justice Silber.
He said that although such a “closed” procedure had never before been adopted in a civil claim for damages, there was no reason in principle why it should not be used if it was necessary for what he called “the just disposal of the case”.
The concept of fairness was “constantly evolving”, he added. An alternative would be to “strike out” the claim launched by seven former detainees.
The seven are Binyam Mohamed, Bisher al-Rawi, Jamil el-Banna, Richard Belmar, Omar Deghayes, Moazzam Begg, and Martin Mubanga. All are British citizens or residents who were held at Guantánamo Bay.
The government wants the evidence of what MI5, MI6 and other officials knew of the torture or mistreatment, and in particular what the CIA told them, to be shown in secret to special advocates appointed by the attorney general, Lady Scotland.
Special advocates are used in national security cases, notably in hearings of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac), which hears challenges to decisions by the Home Office to deport or exclude someone from the UK.
Crow told the court that national security was not the only ground for hearing evidence in secret. Evidence about trade secrets were routinely heard in court behind what he called “confidentiality rings”, he said.
Lawyers for the seven claimants accuse the government of adopting an “extreme and unprecedented” position. They say it is trying to bypass the normal procedure of “public interest immunity certificates”, a well-tried practice whereby the government asks for a gagging order but the final say is with the judge.
The civil rights groups Justice and Liberty have joined the case, which would break new legal ground if the government wins. It would have a “chilling” effect in a case involving allegations of unlawful conduct of the “utmost gravity” against state agents, lawyers for the claimants have told the court.
Louise Christian, of Christian Khan, who is acting for Mubanga, said: “The government is trying to foist the procedures of [Siac] on to our ordinary civil courts without any parliamentary authority and in cases of the utmost gravity and public interest where the charge against the government and the security services is that they have been complicit in torture.”
The claimants’ lawyers compared the government’s attitude with that of the Obama administration, which they said had recently announced it would be more careful in the use of “state secrets privilege” in response to similar claims of wrongdoings by US authorities.
The hearing continues.
Source | See Also under Torture: U.S. artists slam use of music in Guantanamo interrogations | Ottawa was warned Afghan detainees might be tortured | Military commission suspends torture hearings, gags witness | Torture probe delayed; Tories deny gagging witness | Portable heat ray weapon may end up in police hands | Guantanamo January closing deadline may slip | Federal court limits Afghan detainee torture probe | Iraq shoe thrower released from jail, testifies to brutal torture | Sonic weapons used in Iraq positioned at congressional townhall meetings in San Diego county | CIA doctors face human experimentation claims | U.S. probes ‘inhumane’ CIA tactics under Bush | US justice department to investigate CIA over interrogation methods | Obama approves new interrogation unit | UK: New evidence in Binyam Mohamed torture case | UK: Secrets of CIA ‘ghost flights’ to be revealed | UK: CIA ‘put pressure on Britain to cover up its use of torture’ | Microwave weapon will rain pain from the sky | Abdelrazik accuses CSIS, MPs of harassment and interrogation | Pentagon-handpicked 9/11 families want Gitmo kept open | CSIS ignored Khadr’s human rights: Parliamentary report | ‘They were looking for the ideal Manchurian Candidate’ | Revealed – the secret torture evidence MI5 tried to suppress | Guantanamo’s closure window dressing – overseas CIA ‘black sites’ to stay | ‘If I didn’t confess to 7/7 bombings MI5 officers would rape my wife,’ claims torture victim | MPs call for clear policy against torture | New video shows officer shove, then taser 72-year-old great grandmother | US: Ruling allowing Taser use to get DNA may be nation’s first | Gitmo protest captured on film | MI5 faces fresh torture allegations | Skepticism greets launch of Afghan detainee inquiry | Government Experiments on U.S. Soldiers: Shocking Claims Come to Light in New Court Case | Supreme Court of Canada won’t hear Afghan detainee torture case | Reversing himself, Obama seeks to block abuse photos | British soldiers ‘tortured and murdered 20 Iraqis, then covered it up with firefight claim’ | CIA waterboarded 2 al-Qaida suspects 266 times | UK: Government makes ‘unprecedented’ apology for covering up Binyam torture | Psychologists Helped Guide CIA Interrogations | Mumbai attacks suspect alleges torture, retracts confession | Obama publishes torture memos, protects perpetrators | Obama Tilts to CIA on Torture Memos | Document lays bare CIA torture techniques | CSIS chief backpedals on earlier torture statement, claims long-term official ‘misspoke’ | CSIS won’t rule out tips derived from torture | Watchdog rejects government bid to delay Afghan detainee inquiry | Rights groups press for better security oversight | Head of RCMP unit that framed Arar promoted to Assistant Commissioner | Obama administration: Guantanamo detainees have ‘no constitutional rights’ | CIA destroyed 92 interview tapes | Tortured Guantanamo detainee set free | UK agents ‘colluded with torture in Pakistan’ | Obama backs Bush: No rights for Bagram prisoners | U.K. resident held at Gitmo alleges Canadian involvement in torture | Senior judges attack US over ‘torture evidence suppression’ | After Obama praises torture ruling, civil liberties group appalled | Ban stun gun use on young people, Ontario child advocate urges | 24 star Keifer Sutherland opposed to torture, questions role of series in inspiring interrogations | RCMP destroyed evidence, charges dismissed in second torture case for officers | Obama shuts network of CIA ‘ghost prisons’ | Vets Sue CIA Over Mind Control Tests | US police could get ‘pain beam’ weapons | George Bush shoe-thrower ‘too severely beaten’ for court appearance | Conspiracy against Arar reached to highest levels, U.S. court told | Ottawa moves to block Afghanistan detainee torture hearings again | UK Home Secretary orders inquiry into MI5 and CIA torture claims | Tortured trio say report ‘vindicates us’ | Ottawa given evidence of torture, official says | Torture Tactics Endorsed in Secret White House Memos | Tasers being used for pain compliance during interrogation, suit alleges | Lawyers say UK Guantánamo suspect has no hope of fair trial | Defiant military watchdog widens detainee hearings | CSIS faces review in Khadr case | RCMP lays no charges in Maher Arar ‘terrorist’ leaks, declares case closed | Protesters push for Omar Khadr’s release | ‘You don’t care about me,’ Omar Khadr sobs in interview tapes | Remembering Brainwashing | Chinese Torture Techniques Inspired Interrogations at Guantánamo | US Counterinsurgency Manual Leaked, Calls for False Flag Operations, Suspension of Human Rights | Torture was expected in ‘top-down’ decision to deport Arar: lawyer | Bid to Block Afghan Detainee Inquiry Slammed | CSIS suspected U.S. would deport Arar to be tortured: documents | What Ottawa doesn’t want you to know: Government was told detainees faced ‘extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial’ | Canadian MKULTRA project mind control victim to tell of pills, shocks, brainwashing
December 21st, 2009 at 3:38 am
[...] | Military lawyer stonewalls on Afghan torture claims | U.S. court denies Maher Arar’s appeal | UK: Move to withhold evidence in MI5/MI6 torture collusion claim | U.S. artists slam use of music in Guantanamo interrogations | Ottawa was warned Afghan detainees [...]
December 21st, 2009 at 5:23 pm
[...] | Military lawyer stonewalls on Afghan torture claims | U.S. court denies Maher Arar’s appeal | UK: Move to withhold evidence in MI5/MI6 torture collusion claim | U.S. artists slam use of music in Guantanamo interrogations | Ottawa was warned Afghan detainees [...]
December 24th, 2009 at 5:41 am
[...] | Military lawyer stonewalls on Afghan torture claims | U.S. court denies Maher Arar’s appeal | UK: Move to withhold evidence in MI5/MI6 torture collusion claim | U.S. artists slam use of music in Guantanamo interrogations | Ottawa was warned Afghan detainees [...]
December 29th, 2009 at 5:57 am
[...] in death of U.S. soldier | Bomb kills dozens in Pakistan as Hillary Clinton arrives | UK: Move to withhold evidence in MI5/MI6 torture collusion claim | Ex-CIA agent confirms US ties with Jundullah | Pakistani Army working with ‘Good Taliban’ | [...]
December 29th, 2009 at 8:40 am
[...] in death of U.S. soldier | Bomb kills dozens in Pakistan as Hillary Clinton arrives | UK: Move to withhold evidence in MI5/MI6 torture collusion claim | Ex-CIA agent confirms US ties with Jundullah | Pakistani Army working with ‘Good Taliban’ | [...]
December 30th, 2009 at 7:18 am
[...] in death of U.S. soldier | Bomb kills dozens in Pakistan as Hillary Clinton arrives | UK: Move to withhold evidence in MI5/MI6 torture collusion claim | Ex-CIA agent confirms US ties with Jundullah | Pakistani Army working with ‘Good Taliban’ | [...]
January 14th, 2010 at 6:57 am
[...] emergency plan not implemented: Auditor General | Bill would end RCMP self-investigations | UK: Move to withhold evidence in MI5/MI6 torture collusion claim | UK Police in £9m scheme to log ‘domestic extremists’ | Montebello police provocateurs called [...]
January 24th, 2010 at 5:06 am
[...] emergency plan not implemented: Auditor General | Bill would end RCMP self-investigations | UK: Move to withhold evidence in MI5/MI6 torture collusion claim | UK Police in £9m scheme to log ‘domestic extremists’ | Montebello police provocateurs called [...]
February 10th, 2010 at 5:04 pm
[...] UK: Rights watchdog reveals Pakistani spies pressed by British to torture detainees | UK: Move to withhold evidence in MI5/MI6 torture collusion claim | UK: New evidence in Binyam Mohamed torture case | UK: Secrets of CIA ‘ghost flights’ to be [...]
March 23rd, 2010 at 1:25 pm
[...] torture | UK: Rights watchdog reveals Pakistani spies pressed by British to torture detainees | UK: Move to withhold evidence in MI5/MI6 torture collusion claim | UK: New evidence in Binyam Mohamed torture case | UK: Secrets of CIA ‘ghost flights’ to be [...]
May 10th, 2010 at 2:57 am
[...] torture | UK: Rights watchdog reveals Pakistani spies pressed by British to torture detainees | UK: Move to withhold evidence in MI5/MI6 torture collusion claim | UK: New evidence in Binyam Mohamed torture case | UK: Secrets of CIA ‘ghost flights’ to be [...]
July 8th, 2010 at 12:02 am
[...] torture | UK: Rights watchdog reveals Pakistani spies pressed by British to torture detainees | UK: Move to withhold evidence in MI5/MI6 torture collusion claim | UK: New evidence in Binyam Mohamed torture case | UK: Secrets of CIA ‘ghost flights’ to be [...]