Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

MI6 reports own officer over torture allegations

Secret Intelligence Service referred case to attorney general on own initiative, David Miliband reveals in letter


The foreign secretary, David Miliband, said the case of the MI6 officer was now for the police to investigate.

guardian.co.uk, Friday 11 September 2009 13.24 BST

The Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, has reported one of its own officers to the attorney general over allegations of complicity in torture, the foreign secretary revealed today.

David Miliband disclosed the move in a letter to William Hague. The shadow foreign secretary had written to Miliband about allegations made by MPs, first reported in the Guardian, of complicity in torture or ill treatment of detainees and terror suspects by officers in the Security Service, MI5.

Miliband said the case was referred to the attorney general, Lady Scotland, by MI6 on its own initiative, "unprompted by any accusation against the service or the individual concerned".

"It is for the police to investigate. The government cannot comment further both to avoid prejudice and to protect the individuals involved. The scope and handling of any police investigation is a matter for the police themselves."

The Metropolitan police confirmed it had been asked it to investigate "the conditions under which a non-Briton was held" and the "potential involvement of British personnel".

The case is unrelated to that of Binyam Mohamed, which Metropolitan police officers are also investigating, a spokesman said.

Government officials declined to comment further on the allegations or divulge the country in which possible unlawful activity took place.

Miliband said the government wholeheartedly condemned torture. "We will not condone it. Neither will we ever ask others to do it on our behalf. This is not mere rhetoric but a principled stance consistent with our unequivocal commitment to human rights. We are fortunate to have the best security and intelligence services and armed forces in the world."

The police are already investigating allegations of what the high court has called "possible criminal wrongdoing" by an MI5 officer involved in the secret interrogation of Binyam Mohamed, a UK resident who was tortured and ill-treated in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Morocco, and Guantanamo Bay.

The high court has heard in the Binyam Mohamed case, that MI6, and its American counterpart, the CIA, as well as MI5, knew about his secret incarceration. While MI5 operates mainly in Britain, MI6 officers operate abroad, mainly from UK embassies.

Mohamed's lawyers and media groups led by the Guardian are asking for any evidence of collusion by the British and US security and intelligence agencies in his mistreatment to be disclosed. Miliband has been fighting this on the grounds that the evidence is in CIA documents. The US has said disclosure would endanger UK-US intelligence cooperation.

Last month Hague wrote to the foreign secretary in light of a report by parliament's joint committee on human rights.

The committee said the government could no longer get away with repeating standard denials of complicity by the security and intelligence agencies. It said the foreign and home secretaries had refused three times to give evidence to the committee and that ministers must immediately publish instructions given to MI5 and MI6 officers on the detention and interrogation of suspects abroad.

Hague asked the government to "clarify as a matter of urgency whether you intend to instruct the attorney general to consider ... allegations of UK complicity in the light of the joint committee report, which documents allegations of UK complicity in torture in respect of detainees held in Pakistan, Egypt, and Guantanamo Bay, and in the case of Uzbekistan, raises concerns about the receipt of information which may have been obtained through torture".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/11/mi6-officer-torture-allegations-miliband