Britain Warned on Torture Complicity

[Hissyspit]

Source: AFP

Britain warned on torture complicity

Sat Aug 8, 7:05 pm ET

LONDON (AFP) – The government was warned Sunday by a body of lawmakers that regularly using information gained through torture could be legally construed as complicity. It was "imperative" that the government fulfilled its legal obligations to prevent torture and probe alleged incidents, the Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) scrutiny body said in its annual human rights report.

The report comes as intelligence agencies face allegations of involvement in the questioning of terror suspects in countries such as Pakistan, including supplying questions for interrogators.

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"We further conclude that there is a risk that use of evidence which may have been obtained under torture on a regular basis, especially where it is not clear that protestations about mistreatment have elicited any change in behaviour by foreign intelligence services, could be construed as complicity in such behaviour."

The committee acknowledged that using intelligence supplied by other countries which could avert a devastating terror attack but which may have been obtained through torture "raises profoundly difficult moral questions".The government had a duty to use information, whatever its source, if it believed it could save lives, it said."At the same time, we strongly recommend that the government should continue to exert as much persuasion and pressure as possible to try to ensure world-wide that torture is not employed as a method of interrogation."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090808/wl_uk_afp/britainpoliticstorturerights

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Update from BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8191450.stm

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