Appeal judge watered down Binyam Mohamed torture ruling

[kpete]

Source: The Guardian


Appeal judge watered down Binyam Mohamed torture ruling

Government persuaded Lord Neuberger to delete damning references to MI5 'culture' of suppressing evidence


The government launched a successful last-minute bid to persuade the court of appeal to erase the most damning details of MI5's complicity in torture from its decision in the Binyam Mohamed case – but has been unable to suppress a letter that details some of the contents of the original draft ruling.

On Monday, Jonathan Sumption QC wrote to the court warning that the paragraph in question was "likely to receive more public attention than any other parts of the judgments".

This, Sumption pointed out, was because the paragraph would state that MI5 did not operate in a culture that respected human rights or renounced "coercive interrogation techniques".

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Furthermore, the letter shows, the judges originally ruled that MI5 officers had "deliberately misled" the Intelligence and Security Committee, the body of MPs and peers supposed to oversee its work, on the question of coercive interrogations, and that this "culture of suppression" reflected its dealings with the committee, the foreign secretary and the court.



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/10/binyam-mohamed-judge-deleted-ruling