This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It will not be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk_politics/7950109.stm
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| New questions over torture policy | New questions over torture policy |
| (31 minutes later) | |
| The treatment of Binyam Mohamed has raised questions about the "policy and procedures" of Britain's intelligence agencies, a committee says. | |
| The Intelligence and Security Committee said it had reopened its investigation into rendition following allegations by the former Guantanamo Bay detainee. | The Intelligence and Security Committee said it had reopened its investigation into rendition following allegations by the former Guantanamo Bay detainee. |
| It has taken fresh "in depth" evidence and made a series of recommendations to Prime Minister Gordon Brown. | It has taken fresh "in depth" evidence and made a series of recommendations to Prime Minister Gordon Brown. |
| Mr Mohamed says he would not have been tortured but for UK complicity. | Mr Mohamed says he would not have been tortured but for UK complicity. |
| The intelligence and security committee was established in 1994 to report to the prime minister on the work of Britain's security services. | |
| In a rare public statement, chairman Kim Howells said the committee had reopened its rendition inquiry after MI5 director general Jonathan Evans disclosed last year that the new information about Mr Mohamed's case had come to light. | |
| Secret site | |
| The committee - made up of senior MPs and peers - had originally looked into Mr Mohamed's case as part of its inquiry in 2007 into the US policy of "rendition" of terror suspects. | |
| At the time, the committee concluded that MI5 and MI6 had no direct involvement in the rendition programme. | |
| But Mr Mohamed, an Ethiopian national who became a British resident, subsequently claimed through his lawyers that MI5 had been complicit in his interrogation when he was held and tortured at a secret site in Morocco. | |
| Mr Mohamed also claims that he was interviewed for three hours by an MI5 officer while he was being detained in Pakistan. The officer's role, according to Mr Mohamed, was to support the American interrogators. | |
| The MI5 agent who questioned him has previously denied at the British High Court any suggestion that he threatened or put any pressure on Mr Mohamed. | |
| False passport | |
| Labour MP Mr Howells said that while the committee did not investigate individual cases, it had been sufficiently concerned about the wider implications of Mr Mohamed's case that it had re-opened its earlier inquiry. | |
| "In this instance we considered that this new evidence had a far wider significance that went beyond an individual case, and that it raised questions about the policy and procedures that our security and intelligence agencies follow," he said. | |
| "As such it was clearly a matter for the Intelligence and Security Committee and we therefore considered that a further detailed investigation was essential. | |
| "As a result we have taken further, in depth, evidence from the intelligence and security agencies, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office." | |
| The committee had now submitted its findings to Gordon Brown, "including the issues raised about the policies that the UK security and intelligence agencies have followed and should follow". | |
| Mr Mohamed was released from Guantanamo Bay in February having been originally arrested in Pakistan in 2002 travelling on a false passport. | |
| The US authorities alleged that while he was in Afghanistan he underwent terrorist training by al Qaeda - a claim which he denied. | |
| Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has referred his claims against MI5 to the Attorney General, Baroness Scotland. | |
| The US has dropped all charges against Mr Mohamed. |