Firm to be sued over 'torture flights'

A former British resident being held at Guantánamo is suing a subsidiary of the Boeing corporation which he alleges was involved in arranging for him to be taken to secret US prisons around the world. Once there, he says, he was tortured. Lawyers for Benyam Mohammed, an Ethiopian national who grew up in Notting Hill, west London, say Jeppesen Dataplan has been providing logistical support for the Central Intelligence Agency's so-called extraordinary rendition program. According to legal papers filed in San Jose, CA, by the London-based legal charity Reprieve, "Jeppesen has played a critical role in the successful implementation of the extraordinary rendition program" by providing support for flights to countries where the use of torture is routine. "Among other services provided, Jeppesen prepared pre-departure flight planning services, including itinerary, route weather, and fuel plans" for rendition flights, as well as landing and overflight permits, and arranged for fuel to be provided. The papers allege that Jeppesen facilitated more than 70 rendition flights over four years, and knew, or should have known, that detainees were being tortured at their destinations. Reprieve is seeking unspecified damages on behalf of Mohammed, 28, and two other men, Abou Elkassim Britel, an Italian citizen first arrested in Pakistan, who is now in prison in Morocco, and Ahmed Agiza, an Egyptian asylum seeker who was handed over to the CIA by the Swedish police and is now jailed in Egypt. According to declassified documents from military hearings at Guantánamo, Mohammed is suspected of being a senior al-Qaida member and is accused of plotting to blow up a number of apartment blocks in the US. He denies the claims. Reprieve's lawsuit alleges that after being detained in Pakistan in April 2002 he was flown to Morocco on a flight facilitated by Jeppesen. In Morocco he is then said to have been subjected to severe physical and psychological torture. "He was routinely beaten, suffering broken bones and, on occasion, loss of consciousness due to the beatings. His clothes were cut off with a scalpel and the same scalpel was then used to make incisions on his body, including his penis. A hot stinging liquid was then poured into open wounds on his penis where he had been cut. He was frequently threatened with rape, electrocution, and death." He is also said to have been drugged, subjected to loud noise and deprived of sleep. After 18 months of torture he was flown to Afghanistan. While there he suffered more abuse, the papers allege. Similar allegations of torture of the other two detainees are also made in the papers. As part of its case, Reprieve quotes an article in New Yorker magazine in which a Jeppesen executive was quoted as saying that the company does "all the extraordinary rendition flights -- you know, the torture flights." Clive Stafford-Smith, the lawyer representing all three men, said the legal action was intended to warn corporations that they will be held accountable if they participate in criminal acts. "Politicians create sovereign immunity for themselves," he said. "But this does not protect corporations." Jeppesen said it would not comment on the lawsuit. A spokesman said: "Jeppesen's customers have the reasonable expectation that the services they receive from Jeppesen remain confidential. Therefore, we do not identify customers or talk about Jeppesen's customers in any way without their prior consent. "To provide planning services, Jeppesen employees need to know where customers are beginning and ending their trips, the type of aircraft they are using, the number of people who will be flying, and when the trip will occur. The purpose of a trip is not required information for a flight plan."