Kenyan wins right to start torture proceedings against UK

London, Dec 21, IRNA – Court of Appeal inLondonhere Wednesday granted permission for a judicial review brought by a 37 year old Kenyan Muslim human rights activist who accuses MI5 and FBI of complicity in his rendition and torture.

Omar Awadh Omar claims that he was abused both by British and by American interrogators after being kidnapped and driven across the border by Kenyan Anti-Terrorist Police to Uganda in September 2010.

The case is the first regarding torture brought under the UK’s coalition government and since it rewrote the secret policy last year governing intelligence officers while questioning people held overseas after facing previous allegations of torture.

“This case involves extremely serious allegations of UK complicity in the unlawful rendition, treatment and prosecution of our client, Omar Awadh Omar,” said his solicitor, Tessa Gregory, of Public Interest Lawyers (PIL).

“In light of the Court’s decision today, the Government can no longer sensibly maintain its policy of neither confirming nor denying its involvement in Omar’s case,” Gregory said in a statement obtained by IRNA.

His application seeks disclosure from the UK about its knowledge of his alleged rendition from Kenya to Uganda, where he currently faces capital murder charges following the 2010 Kampala bombings, which killed 74 people.

PIL said that no concrete evidence has been brought by Ugandan prosecution lawyers against the prominent Nairobi-based human rights activist and that “if rendition can be proved, this could result in the collapse of the charges against Omar.”

While being interrogated and abused by MI5 and FBI agents, Omar says he was also not questioned about the Kampala bombings, which the agents made clear they did not suspect him of involvement in.

“Instead, they offered him a role as an informant. He alleges that his refusal to cooperate has resulted in his continued detention in solitary confinement on capital charges,” PIL said.

The hearing follows the decision of the British Government to “neither confirm nor deny” involvement in the ill-treatment or rendition of Omar. Omar also alleges that through its involvement in his coercive interrogation in Kampala, the UK had breached its 2010 Guidance to Intelligence Officers.

The Court of Appeal, however, held that judicial review, which will take place next year, should not be used to challenge that alleged breach, but which ought instead to be the subject of a complaint to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal.

The case comes as the British government is already facing a number of legal challenges over number of loopholes in its rewritten secret policy that could continue to result in UK officers being involved in the torture of terrorism suspects

Source: http://www.irna.ir/ENNewsShow.aspx?NID=30725441&SRCH=1