A firm with a number of UK Government contracts was responsible for rendering several political prisoners from a CIA secret prison in Afghanistan to the Gaddafi regime’s cells in Libya, according to new data released by the legal charity Reprieve.
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), which provides services to a number of Government bodies including the NHS, Home Office and Ministry of Defence, was responsible for contracting flights to carry three prisoners from Afghanistan to Libya on 22 August 2004, says Reprieve.
The men are the subject of a new report by Human Rights Watch, published this week, which details how they were subjected to torture including waterboarding while in CIA custody in Afghanistan. In Libya, all three men - Mohammed al-Shoroeiya, Majid Mokhtar Sasy al-Maghrebi and Saleh Hadiyah Abu Abdullah Di’iki - were subjected at various points to prolonged solitary confinement and beating.
Data gathered by Reprieve indicates that these men were flown on a Gulfstream IV jet contracted by CSC which left Kabul at 14:02 on 22 August 2004 and arrived in Mitiga airport, in Tripoli that evening. It paused on the runway for an hour before the crew returned to Washington DC via Mallorca and Canada.
Before setting out to transfer the men to Gaddafi’s notorious prison system, crew and rendition team ordered a spread of Mexican food and cookies for 12 people, at a total cost $1472.05.
Reprieve investigator Crofton Black said: “This is yet more evidence of CSC’s extensive involvement in the secret prison system. Not only did they move into and out of CIA sites, but they also helped to offer up to Gaddafi his political opponents.”
[Ekk/4]
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