JURIST - Hotline: UK ex-Guantanamo detainees suit: no room for arbitrary detention and torture

Asim Qureshi [senior researcher, Cageprisoners]: "After years of being held in detention without charge, the British men released from Guantanamo Bay who are pursuing legal action against the intelligence services are sending a very clear message to both governments and security services: there is no room for arbitrary detention and torture.

The released men - who were never charged with any crime during their imprisonment - have never received a formal apology from the US or UK governments for the ordeal they underwent. The process of taking action against the UK administration clearly seeks to redress the complicity of the British government in rendition to torture and false imprisonment at secret detention sites, culminating in incarceration at Guantanamo Bay.

Whatever may result in the outcome of these claims, it is not acceptable that British citizens (indeed any citizens), are detained beyond the protection of the law, interrogated by British security services and then simply handed over, extrajudicially, to third party countries."