MI6 Agents Present During Torture

By Hannah K. Strange

Pressure is increasing on the British government over allegations that its intelligence agents participated in the kidnap and torture of 28 Pakistanis in Greece following the July 7 bombings.
Three of the men told a press conference in Athens Tuesday of alleged beatings, threats and psychological torture they had suffered during their seven-day detention.

The detainees maintain that members of MI6, Britain’s overseas intelligence service, were present at some of the interrogations, said to have been conducted by Greek counter-terrorism agents.

The men were allegedly seized in late night raids in Athens and the northern town of Joannina by Greek agents following leads related to the July 7 bombings in London, which killed 52 people.

They claim they were beaten, blindfolded, kept in solitary confinement and told they would be killed if they told anyone of their ordeal, which lasted up to seven days.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw last week dismissed the allegations of British involvement as “complete nonsense.”

In Athens Tuesday, three of the men spoke for the first time publicly about their ordeal, which began when they were seized late at night on July 16 and 17.

Mohammad Munir, 35, said 10 Greek agents came into his house, and took him into a room where he was repeatedly punched.

“They handcuffed me, made me face the wall and started to beat me. They hit me over the body and I fell down, hit the table and cut my lip, and blood came.”

His claims were supported by Azhar Mehmood, 35, one of six further housemates who were also seized in the raid.

“I saw Munir with blood dripping from his mouth and handcuffed,” he said.

Munir said the agents pulled the shirt he was wearing over his head so that he could not see, and drove him away for further interrogations.

During his detention he suffered two further beatings, Munir claimed, and after six days he was released with a terrifying threat.

“When they let us go they told us not to talk. They said that if we did they would slit our throats.”

Munir said it was because of this threat that he had taken so long to come forward: “I was very frightened. I could not even talk to my father about this.”

The Greek weekly Proto Thema has named a British intelligence officer, allegedly the Athens MI6 station chief, that it claims was present at some of the interrogations. The British government asked domestic newspaper editors not to publish the name; however this request was ignored by the Socialist Worker and the Morning Star, who named the agent earlier this week.

Azhar Mehmood said there was one person present during his two days of interrogations who was not Greek and who spoke English with a British accent. A second detainee also described the same man, while others described two male non-Greek speakers, one of them black.

It has been reported that British intelligence tracked a call from Britain to a mobile phone in Joannina and asked Greek authorities to investigate. Greek police or agents then detained Pakistani men and went through the numbers stored on their cell phones, which in turn led to more arrests.

Frangiskos Ragoussis, the lawyer for all seven men, said: “We knew from the start that the people coordinating the operation were non-Greeks. Since then we have acquired plenty of evidence that they were MI6. We know that a British agent was in the car when five of the Pakistanis were abducted. We also know that the car used was not the type Greek intelligence normally use.”

The lawyer said MI6 officers broke the law by failing to report that the detainees were mistreated by Greek agents. British law requires officers to report any abuse they witness and forbids MI6’s collusion in torture or abuse.

He said: “It makes no difference if it was a Greek agent beating someone up while the MI6 guy stood there and watched in order not to get his hands covered in blood — he was still present.”

Ragoussis has filed a lawsuit against the British operative and 15 Greek agents named by Proto Thema and is pressing charges of abduction and torture. The case is also the subject of a judicial investigation.

In Britain, the opposition Liberal Democrats has said an inquiry is needed for public confidence.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Foreign Secretary Sir Menzies-Campbell told BBC Radio last week: “I believe the appropriate course now would be for the intelligence and security committee of Parliament to investigate these matters.

“I think it is necessary for public confidence and also to get to the bottom of what are serious allegations for some further investigation to be carried out.”

Parliament had a responsibility in these matters, he added.

When questioned over the allegations earlier this month, Foreign Secretary Straw told parliamentarians: “They are complete nonsense and no United Kingdom officials have taken part in any alleged mistreatment in Greece of any suspects whatsoever and we were not involved in the arrest or detention of those particular suspects.”

A foreign office official told United Press International Wednesday that this denial extended to claims of a British presence during the interrogations.

“There was absolutely no M16 official present even, when these activities are alleged to have taken place,” he said.

The allegations come at a time when the British government is under mounting pressure over its tactics in the fight against terrorism. The human rights group Liberty is to launch a legal action in January to force the government to investigate claims that the United States used British airfields while transferring terror suspects abroad for interrogation using torture. MI6 agents have also been accused of handing over a British resident to the CIA, who then took him to facilities in Morocco and Afghanistan where he claims he was tortured.

UPI U.K. Correspondent