Minister admits terror transfer

[Nostalgia]

Ministers have admitted they handed over terror suspects in Iraq to US authorities, sparking claims of collusion in extraordinary rendition.

Defence secretary John Hutton said two men detained in 2004 were transferred to US custody and were then transported to Afghanistan, where they remain.

He said he was reassured they had been treated humanely but apologised for past incorrect answers given to MPs.

The Tories said the UK faced charges of being "complicit with serious abuse".

Mr Hutton apologised for incorrect information being given to MPs in the past when the issue of rendition had been raised.

He said he now knew UK officials were aware that the two men, understood to be Pakistani nationals, had been transferred to US custody in 2004 but that no action had been taken on the issue.

New evidence

He said "brief references" to the case had been included in papers sent to then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Home Secretary Charles Clarke in April 2006 but its significance had not been highlighted at the time.

The UK has always denied allegations of collusion in extraordinary rendition - the term used for sending terror suspects for interrogation in countries where torture is not illegal - despite frequent claims to the contrary.

In a statement to MPs, Mr Hutton said a review of detainees held by the UK forces in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003 had uncovered the case of the two men, members of the banned group Lashkar e Tayyiba, which has links to al-Qaeda.

They are still being held in Afghanistan, where they are classified as "unlawful enemy combatants".

Mr Hutton said there was no "substantiated evidence" that they had been mistreated or subjected to abuse there.

However, he apologised that information given to MPs in the past by ministers about the case and UK involvement was incorrect.

"I regret that it is now clear that inaccurate information on this particular issue has been given to the House by my department.

"I must stress that this was based on the information available to ministers and those who were briefing them at the time.

"My predecessors as defence secretary have confirmed to me that they had no knowledge of these events."

'Not candid'

The Conservatives said that although the case was a "specific rather than a systemic failure", it raised serious questions about the practice of extraordinary rendition.

Shadow security minister Crispin Blunt said Mr Hutton's remarks seemed to contradict assurances given in 2006 and ministers were wrong to "overlook" the importance of the case.

"It is of serious concern that there is a underlying charge of complicity with serious abuse of people detained by British forces on operations overseas," he said.

Former home secretary David Davis said the case was the "latest in a series of issues where the government has been less than straightforward" in regard to allegations of torture.

The government admitted last year that two US flights carrying terror suspects for interrogation landed on UK territory in 2002.

The latest revelation comes days after Binyam Mohamed, the former Guantanamo detainee who claims UK intelligence agencies colluded in his torture, returned to the UK.

Civil liberties campaigners said they were "shocked but not surprised" by Mr Hutton's statement.

"This was rendition," said Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti.

"It was transfer of prisoners of a kind which had previously been denied."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7912656.stm