Former UK Guantanamo detainee to sue UK intelligence services over torture News
Former UK Guantanamo detainee to sue UK intelligence services over torture

[JURIST] Former British Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee Tarek Dergoul [History Commons profile] is suing the UK's MI5 (domestic) and MI6 (foreign) [official websites] intelligence services over complicity with Dergoul's alleged torture, according to a Wednesday report [text] in the Guardian. Dergoul alleges that he was subjected to beatings, sexual humiliation, extremes of cold, and insults to his religion while being held by US forces in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, and that UK agents periodically interviewed him during his detention, attempting to benefit from his abuse at the hands of others. Dergoul seeks a ruling to prevent UK intelligence from benefiting from the abuse of prisoners held outside the UK. He also seeks damages from the intelligence services and the UK's Foreign Office [official website], citing "misfeasance in public office."

Dergoul was picked up in Afghanistan in 2001, where he was held for four months before being sent to Guantanamo Bay. He was returned to Britain in 2004, where he was released without charge [JURIST report]. Dergoul alleges that he was only in Afghanistan to study Arabic, and has no ties to terrorism. AFP has more.