Britain’s intelligence service MI5 is in the eye of storm over revelations that its current chief Jonathan Evans was the senior spy involved in the torture of several Britons in foreign jails.
“He is probably the one responsible for the policy,” lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, Smith told The Times on Sunday, February 14.
“It’s a criminal offence to tell an agent in the field to ignore allegations of torture.”
Evans was the director of MI5’s counter-terrorism branch between 2001 and 2005.
While in his post, allegations had surfaced that several people were reportedly tortured in foreign prisons with collusion of the MI5.
“Evans was probably in the frame” said Smith, who represents former Guantanamo detainee Benyam Mohamed.
Mohamed, who was born in Ethiopia but held British residency, was released from Guantanamo in 2009 after five years in the notorious detention camp.
He insisted British authorities knew he was tortured by US jailers and sued the government to release a secret intelligence summary proving the allegation.
A British court on Wednesday ordered the government to disclose the secret intelligence summary about the torture and abuses by American jailers in Guantanamo.
At least 13 people are suing the government for damages over the MI5’s complicity in their torture.
The involvement of British officials in torture is outlawed by the 1988 Criminal Justice Act. It carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
“Enemies”
Human rights groups accused the MI5 chief of considering critics as “enemies of the state”.
“The implication is that all of us are enemies of the state — just for trying to find out what happened,” Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said.
Last week, Evans severely criticized claims of an MI5 torture collusion, saying they were “the precise opposite of the truth”.
But rights groups hit back at the chief spy.
“Jonathan Evans has an understandable interest in defending the honor of his service,” said Chakrabarti.
“But given his particular counter-terror responsibilities at the crucial time, few will regard him as a neutral commentator.”
Rights groups have repeatedly accused London of involvement in the infamous US rendition flights taking terror suspects to countries where they face torture.
For years the government repeatedly denied its territories had ever been used by the CIA for such purposes.
Only last year, Britain admitted for the first time, in an apology to the House of Commons, that the CIA did use British soil in rendition flights.
“He is probably the one responsible for the policy,” lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, Smith told The Times on Sunday, February 14.
“It’s a criminal offence to tell an agent in the field to ignore allegations of torture.”
Evans was the director of MI5’s counter-terrorism branch between 2001 and 2005.
While in his post, allegations had surfaced that several people were reportedly tortured in foreign prisons with collusion of the MI5.
“Evans was probably in the frame” said Smith, who represents former Guantanamo detainee Benyam Mohamed.
Mohamed, who was born in Ethiopia but held British residency, was released from Guantanamo in 2009 after five years in the notorious detention camp.
He insisted British authorities knew he was tortured by US jailers and sued the government to release a secret intelligence summary proving the allegation.
A British court on Wednesday ordered the government to disclose the secret intelligence summary about the torture and abuses by American jailers in Guantanamo.
At least 13 people are suing the government for damages over the MI5’s complicity in their torture.
The involvement of British officials in torture is outlawed by the 1988 Criminal Justice Act. It carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
“Enemies”
Human rights groups accused the MI5 chief of considering critics as “enemies of the state”.
“The implication is that all of us are enemies of the state — just for trying to find out what happened,” Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said.
Last week, Evans severely criticized claims of an MI5 torture collusion, saying they were “the precise opposite of the truth”.
But rights groups hit back at the chief spy.
“Jonathan Evans has an understandable interest in defending the honor of his service,” said Chakrabarti.
“But given his particular counter-terror responsibilities at the crucial time, few will regard him as a neutral commentator.”
Rights groups have repeatedly accused London of involvement in the infamous US rendition flights taking terror suspects to countries where they face torture.
For years the government repeatedly denied its territories had ever been used by the CIA for such purposes.
Only last year, Britain admitted for the first time, in an apology to the House of Commons, that the CIA did use British soil in rendition flights.
