Guantanamo inmates accuse UK of ‘complicity’ in CIA torture

LONDON: Lawyers for two Guantanamo detainees accused UK intelligence agencies in court on Wednesday of being “complicit” in CIA torture following the 9/11 attacks, notably by using information obtained during interrogations.

The trial in London, described as “unprecedented” by UK-based anti-torture organisation Redress, is being held before the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), the judicial body that handles complaints against British intelligence agencies, and runs until Friday.

Redress initiated proceedings with a 2021 complaint against several agencies, including MI5 and MI6 -- the domestic and foreign intelligence services -- for their “possible involvement” in the torture of Mustapha al-Hawsawi.

The question is whether the agencies were “complicit” with the CIA by “providing questions or information” to US agents for use during Al-Hawsawi´s interrogations, or by “receiving information” obtained during his interrogations, Redress lawyer Edward Craven told court.

Hawsawi was captured in Pakistan in 2003, accused by the Americans of participating in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

The Saudi national, born in 1968, is still being held at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba more than two decades later. “There is no doubt that he was subjected to the most brutal torture,” the lawyer said, citing waterboarding, sleep deprivation and rape. He was held in secret CIA detention facilities, known as “black sites”, in Afghanistan, Lithuania, Morocco and Romania, said Craven.