Court admission comes in trial over claims British agents were complicit in CIA torture operations
The UK government has admitted its intelligence agencies were “too slow” to realise the CIA was mistreating prisoners in its post-9/11 torture programme, acknowledging in court for the first time involvement in US detention operations.
The admission was made during a trial that concluded on Friday at the investigatory powers tribunal, which has been investigating claims that British intelligence was complicit in the mistreatment of two men who were repeatedly tortured by the CIA in the early 2000s.
In court, arguments were heard about whether legal protections that authorise the intelligence services to commit criminal offences extend to cover complicity in torture and other forms of cruel and degrading mistreatment.
The cases have been brought by lawyers representing Mustafa al-Hawsawi, who is accused by the US of aiding the hijackers behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who is alleged to have plotted al-Qaida’s bombing of a US naval ship in 2000.
