Ministers pressured in torture row

Feb 4 2009

Ministers have been urged to intervene in a row between the British courts and the United States over the release of documents relating to allegations of torture.

Two senior judges revealed the US Government threatened to review its intelligence-sharing relationship with the UK if the material was placed in the public domain.

The documents reveal details of the treatment by the US of Ethiopian Binyam Mohamed, a former UK resident being held in Guantanamo Bay, who claims British agencies were complicit in his torture.

The High Court ruled the dossier provided by US authorities should remain secret but launched a scathing criticism of the threat.

Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones said it was "difficult to conceive" that a democratically elected and accountable government could have any rational objection to the summary of Mohamed's treatment by US agencies being published.

They said they had no reason "to anticipate there would be made a threat of the gravity of the kind made by the US government that it would reconsider its intelligence sharing relationship, when all the considerations in relation to open justice pointed to us providing a limited but important summary of the reports."

The judges said Foreign Secretary David Miliband believed there was a "real risk" that the potential loss of intelligence cooperation would seriously increase the threat from terror faced by the UK. And they urged the new Obama administration to reconsider its decision.

Former shadow home secretary David Davis demanded a Commons statement on the ruling, calling it a "matter of utmost national importance". He said the ruling implied that torture had taken place and British agencies may have been complicit.

Downing Street said it was unaware of the threat and had "not engaged" with the new administration on the detail of the case. A spokesman said: "We have a very strong intelligence relationship with the US and this will continue."

He added that the British Government would "unreservedly condemn" the use of torture and any allegations of mistreatment would be taken "very seriously".