Britain’s top court on Monday began hearings in a landmark case involving a Libyan man who accuses the British government of conspiring with the CIA in his “rendition” to Libya for torture in 2004.
The Supreme Court is hearing the case after the state appealed a previous Court of Appeals ruling in October 2014 that gave Abdul-Hakim Belhaj and his wife the right to take the government to court.
“For years the British government has sought to shut the door of the British courts to victims of torture and state-sponsored kidnapping,” said Cori Crider, from the legal charity Reprieve.
Campaigners believe the Belhaj case could open the door to similar legal action in torture cases.
Belhaj, a former Islamist militant who became Tripoli’s military commander after Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was ousted in the 2011 revolution, claims British involvement in his illegal rendition.
He and his wife said they were detained by US intelligence officers at Bangkok airport in Thailand in 2004 when Belhaj was leader of the anti-Kadhafi Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.
His wife was several months pregnant at the time.
The couple were then taken to Tripoli, where Belhaj was jailed for six years. Files unearthed from Kadhafi’s archives after his fall suggest he was captured due to a British tip-off after he initially made an attempt to seek asylum in Britain.
The legal action he has launched is against the British government, including the MI5 and MI6 intelligence agencies.
The couple have offered to settle the case for an apology, and a token £1 (1.4 euros, $1.5) payment from the former head of counter terrorism at MI6, Britain’s former foreign minister and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
The government has argued that evidence should not be heard because the claims involved other countries.
Campaigners say Britain is only concerned about damaging its relations with the United States.
(afp)
