Abdel Hakim Belhaj: justice barred for Libyan dissident, say lawyers

http://www.theguardian.com/global/2013/oct/23/abdel-hakim-belhaj-justice-llibyan-dissident

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Britain's intelligence agencies want to prevent a leading Libyan dissident and his pregnant wife, who were abducted with the help of MI6 and then tortured, from seeking justice because of "political embarrassment", the high court heard on Wednesday.

Court documents released on behalf of Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his Moroccan-born wife, Fatima Bouchar, say the government's attempt to get the case thrown out is "incompatible with the rule of law and has grave constitutional implications".

The documents say that if the government were right, it would "leave anyone who is a victim of torture without any remedy if another state was involved in some way in the conduct".

Lawyers acting for MI6, a former senior MI6 officer, Sir Mark Allen, the former foreign secretary Jack Straw, and MI5, argue that since the abduction took place abroad and involved officials from other countries, they had no case to answer in a British court.

However, Richard Hermer QC, Belhaj's counsel, said the traditional doctrine of state immunity from prosecution did not cover torture and other human rights abuses. He told Mr Justice Simon the government was deploying a "doctrine of political embarrassment".

Belhaj, former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, was detained with his wife in China in 2004 at the behest of British and US officials. They were then transferred to Malaysia and Thailand before being flown in a CIA plane to Tripoli in 2004.

The forced rendition took place at the time Tony Blair's government was establishing close relations with Muammar Gaddafi, then Libya's leader.

Documents released on Wednesday by Belhaj's lawyers and the human rights charity Reprieve, say Bouchar, who was heavily pregnant at the time, was blindfolded, taken to a cell and "chained to the wall by one hand and one leg" before being "taped to a stretcher tightly, making her fear for her baby" and forced on board a CIA jet.

Belhaj says he was beaten on arrival in Tripoli, and his wife "could no longer feel her baby move in her womb and was concerned that he had died". The couple were taken to Tajoura prison, a detention facility in Tripoli operated by the Libyan intelligence services.

Cori Crider, a lawyer at Reprieve, said neither Blair, Straw, nor the current government, was prepared to give the apology "deserved". She said: "Instead they are running a specious and immoral argument that British courts cannot judge British officials when they are said to have conspired with foreign torturers."

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