JURIST - Paper Chase: UK ex-Guantanamo prisoners suing British intelligence services: report

[JURIST] Eight former British Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees are suing the UK's MI5 (domestic) and MI6 (foreign) [official websites] intelligence services over alleged complicity with the US in their illegal abduction, treatment and interrogation at the prison, according to a report [text] Saturday in London's Daily Mail. Two separate writs have been issued at the High Court in London, although neither has yet been served. The first writ was issued by lawyers for three British foreign nationals - Omar Deghayes from Libya and Jamil el-Banna from Jordan, who were released from Guantanamo last December, and Bisher al Rawi, an Iraqi who was released [JURIST reports] in April 2007. The second writ was issued on behalf of five British citizens Moazzam Begg, Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, Ruhal Ahmed and Richard Belmar.

Rasul, Iqbal, Ahmed and another former detainee, Jamal Al-Harith filed a US lawsuit [case backgrounder; JURIST report] in 2004 against former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Meyers, and others for alleged torture and infringement of religious practice during their captivity. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [official website] dismissed [JURIST report] the lawsuit, ruling [PDF text] that detainees do not have the right to sue high-ranking government officials for such allegations. Lawyers for the men are taking the case to the Supreme Court. AFP has more.

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