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July 29, 2009

Rights Group Sues UK for Torture, Rendition of Ex-Gitmo Prisoner
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In Britain, the human rights group Reprieve has filed suit against the
British government over the rendition and torture of a former Guantanamo
Bay prisoner. Reprieve says Britain allowed the rendition of Mohammed
Madni through the US airbase on the British-controlled island of Diego
Garcia. Madni spent three months in Egypt, where he was tortured and
then sent to Guantanamo Bay, where he was jailed for six years until his
2008 release. Reprieve director Clive Stafford Smith called on the
British government to issue an apology.

Clive Stafford Smith: “I think the first thing that the British
government needs to say to Mr. Madni are three simple words: ‘We are
sorry.’ You know, that’s the most important thing for a victim under
these circumstances, and for Mr Madni, he wants to make sure that rules
are set in place to make sure no one else is put in this situation in
the future. He has suffered already, but he doesn’t want other people to
suffer the sort of torture and abuse he’s been through.”

Smith says the case could bring the first official confirmation of
British involvement in the rendition of US prisoners across multiple
borders.



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