At last Britain admits rendition of terror suspects

Gordon Brown was under growing pressure to hold an independent inquiry into Britain’s complicity in torture last night after ministers admitted that terror suspects detained by British soldiers in Iraq were secretly flown by the US to Afghanistan.

John Hutton, the Defence Secretary, told MPs that despite repeated official assurances to the contrary, British soldiers were involved in at least one case of rendition. Two suspects captured and detained by British Special Forces outside Baghdad in 2004 were subsequently removed by the US to Afghanistan where they remain in detention. There was “no evidence” that the two, believed to be Pakistani members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a proscribed organisation with links to al-Qaeda, had been tortured, Mr Hutton insisted.

But the Government’s embarrassment was heightened when Mr Hutton revealed that officials told Jack Straw and Charles Clarke about the case in April 2006 in internal briefing papers. Mr Straw repeatedly denied that Britain was involved in rendition while he was Foreign Secretary. Yesterday Mr Hutton sought to defend his colleagues, saying that officials had made only “brief references” to the case in “lengthy papers” which did not “highlight its significance”. However, he added: “It is clear to me that the transfer to Afghanistan of these two individuals should have been questioned at the time.”

A spokesman for Mr Straw said: “If he had been alerted to the significance of the case at the time it’s a fair suggestion that he would have brought it to the attention of Parliament.” More