Police Scotland are investigating the use of Scottish airports to facilitate torture and rendition in 2013, and the Lord Advocate in 2014 ordered them to examine potentially vital evidence held in the US Senate report.
The Government’s push for secrecy follows the emergence of evidence revealing that there may be at least 15 further cases where the UK was complicit in torture and rendition.
The Inter-American Commission found that “insurmountable obstacles within the US legal system” prevent victims of U.S. counterterrorism operations from obtaining remedies before US courts.
The Government today refused to hold a judge-led inquiry into UK involvement in rendition and torture, while presenting updated Whitehall guidance which campaigners says fails to expressly prohibit Ministers authorising action carrying a real risk of torture.
The Government will set out its decision on a judge-led inquiry into British complicity in US rendition and torture later this week, de facto Deputy Prime Minister David Lidington MP announced
A new report presents, for the first time, a comprehensive overview of the Central Intelligence Agency's black sites network, using new data derived from an unprecedented analysis of the Senate Intelligence Committee's 2014 study of CIA detention.
The Government is facing a legal challenge from the human right organisation Reprieve over its use of a secretive law that can be deployed to authorise the involvement of British intelligence officers in torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
The Supreme Court has blocked Government attempts to expand the application of secret courts in the first challenge to the laws before the country’s highest court.
The Government has announced that it is considering a judge-led inquiry into UK involvement in torture and rendition following the publication of two reports into the subject by the Intelligence and Security Committee last week.
Former Conservative Cabinet Minister Ken Clarke has called for the Prime Minister to set up an independent, judge-led inquiry into the UK’s role in torture and rendition.