UK accused of torture

UK government lawyers have lost a bid to prevent investigation of a claim by a long-term inmate that British intelligence was complicit in his torture. Mustafa al-Hawsawi, accused by the US of helping to finance the 9/11 attacks, has been held in Guantánamo Bay since 2006 and before that in CIA “black sites” used to question “high-value detainees”. Lawyers for Redress, a legal NGO that has represented al-Hawsawi since 2012, say he was tortured with water-dousing, cramped confinements and sleep deprivation among other techniques and that there’s evidence British intelligence agencies “encouraged, facilitated, or conspired with US authorities” in such torture. The Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which polices the UK’s intelligence agencies, said yesterday it was in the public interest to investigate al-Hawsawi’s claim. Redress notes the US Select Committee on Intelligence has “doubts and questions” about his ties to al-Qaeda.

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