[JURIST] Human rights groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Liberty, and Reprieve on Monday joined with members of British parliament in calling for an inquiry into the UK role in torture and rendition during the war on terror. In an open letter, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition demanded British officials conduct a public hearing on the role played by UK intelligence agencies and armed forces in the alleged torture and rendition of terror suspects. In the letter, the group suggests a lack of governmental transparency on the issue, saying “he public should not have to rely on occasional speeches and lengthy judicial cases to discover the truth about such a serious issue.”
The letter comes days after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown failed to deliver a promised public revision of guidelines given to UK intelligence officers for the treatment of detainees. Brown faces growing scrutiny of UK detainee procedures amid allegations from former Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohammed that British intelligence officials were involved in his torture in Morocco. In February, Reprieve initiated a lawsuit against the UK government over its alleged torture of detainees, claiming that its unwillingess to disclose detainee policies suggests that they permit illegal torture.