UK sued for role in US rendition and torture

A legal charity is suing the Government in connection with the extraordinary rendition of two men arrested in Iraq, passed to the US authorities and held at a detention centre in Afghanistan for the past five years. The legal challenge aims to force Britain to reveal the identity of the men–believed to be from Pakistan–and the whereabouts of their families to enable the charity Reprieve to obtain authorisation to challenge their detention. Clive Stafford Smith, director of Reprieve, said in a statement today that at least one of the detainees is suffering from serious mental problems because of alleged mistreatment at Bagram air force base. "These two men have been held in appalling conditions for five years, and for all that time the British Government chose to do nothing," he said. "We have an urgent moral, as well as legal, duty to repair the damage his rendition has caused. How many more times is the Government going to say one thing–that they never cover up complicity in torture–while doing the opposite?"