Apology: UK helped send Mr Belhadj to Gaddafi
Britain’s involvement in the barbaric mistreatment of terror suspects will not be investigated by a judge-led inquiry, ministers said yesterday – leading to outrage and claims of a cover-up.
The Government rejected calls for an independent probe to examine UK complicity in torture and rendition during the so-called War on Terror.
Furious MPs, including ex-Tory ministers, and human rights campaigners accused the Prime Minister of ‘breaking a promise’ to hold those responsible for abusing detainees to account – and warned they would mount a legal challenge.
But Theresa May’s de facto deputy David Lidington said there was ‘no legal obligation’ and it would not bring ‘closure’, which has raised concerns the scandal is being brushed under the carpet.
Critics said failing to fulfil the Tory party’s pledge to hold an inquiry, chaired by a senior judge, will mean never discovering the truth about some of Britain’s darkest days. Last year, a bombshell report by Parliament’s intelligence watchdog confirmed that Tony Blair’s New Labour government and the security services colluded with the US in torture and ‘extraordinary rendition’, where suspects are flown to another country for imprisonment and interrogation.
The secretive Intelligence and Security Committee’s (ISC) dossier laid bare how British spy chiefs tolerated ‘inexcusable’ mistreatment of detainees in the years after the Al Qaeda attacks on September 11, 2001.
It was ‘beyond doubt’ that Britain knew hundreds of detainees were subjected to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, it added.
Following the report’s publication, Mrs May said the security and intelligence agencies ‘regretted’ not recognising the ‘unacceptable practices’ sooner. She said the Government would give ‘careful consideration’ to holding a judge-led inquiry.
But in a statement to the Commons – a year after Parliament was told a decision would be made within 60 days – Mr Lidington closed the door on a fresh probe.
Theresa May’s de facto deputy David Lidington said there was ‘no legal obligation’ and it would not bring ‘closure’, which has raised concerns the scandal is being brushed under the carpet
He said a string of investigations by the police and Crown Prosecution Service, which included former Labour foreign secretary Jack Straw being questioned, had led to nobody standing in the dock.
He said ‘extensive work’ had been taken to update guidance to ensure such a scandal could never be repeated.
In response, former Tory Cabinet minister David Davis vowed to bring a judicial review of the decision, warning ministers: ‘See you in court.’
He said: ‘This is to minimise the fallout from past actions.
‘But it is always better to come clean. The Government is asking us to allow it to mark its own homework. It simply should not be allowed to do so. Plainly, the Government has not learned its lesson yet.
‘There are a number of reasons for having an inquiry: legal, reputational, operational, closure, and the simple one of keeping the promise we gave.’
No10 issued a letter of apology from Mrs May, in which she said she was ‘profoundly sorry’ for the ‘appalling treatment’ of Abdul Hakim Belhadj
Dan Dolan, of human rights group Reprieve, said: ‘The Government has not only broken its promises to Parliament and the public, but also to survivors of War on Terror era torture.
‘The Government has failed to fulfil its legal responsibility to independently investigate allegations of torture. If we do not learn the lessons from this period in British history, we are doomed to repeat them, and the risk of this has never been higher with a US President who has endorsed the use of torture.’
Critics said the Government’s new guidance did not specifically prohibit torture.
In 2010, David Cameron set up the Detainee Inquiry and appointed judge Sir Peter Gibson. This centred on allegations that the UK was embroiled in the abuse and return of two Libyan dissidents back to Colonel Gaddafi’s regime. But the probe was scrapped in 2012 before completing its work. In May last year, ministers were forced to make an unprecedented admission of the country’s complicity in torture and kidnap.
The UK’s most senior law officer, then Attorney General Jeremy Wright, accepted that Mr Blair’s government and MI6 had helped send a Libyan dissident and his pregnant wife into the clutches of Colonel Gaddafi.
Abdul Hakim Belhadj – a sworn enemy of the tyrant – and his wife Fatima Boudchar were delivered to Gaddafi’s henchmen in 2004.
No10 issued a letter of apology from Mrs May, in which she said she was ‘profoundly sorry’ for the ‘appalling treatment’.
MP Alistair Carmichael, then the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, called it ‘a day of national shame’.