An international human rights group is urging Britain to investigate its role in the questioning of terrorism suspects in Pakistan, saying the government was aware that Pakistani officials tortured five U.K. detainees but did not intervene, according to AP. In a report released Tuesday, Human Rights Watch said members of Pakistani intelligence agencies have corroborated its findings and backed its claims of British complicity in the torture of the five U.K. citizens of Pakistani origin between 2004 and 2007. Quoting unidentified Pakistani sources, the report said officials described being under great pressure from Britain and the United States. It quoted the sources as saying that British and American agents were «perfectly aware that we were using all means possible to extract information» from one suspect, Salahuddin Amin, and were «grateful that we were doing so.» Amin was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 following a yearlong trial into a plot to bomb a British nightclub and power plants. A year later, Britain"s Court of Appeal rejected his attempt to have his conviction overturned. Human Rights Watch said he was tortured repeatedly in 2004 and forced into false confessions. Pakistan"s interior ministry did not immediately return calls from The Associated Press seeking comment late Wednesday. The group"s report said four of the five detainees described meeting British officials while in custody in Pakistan _ in some cases shortly after sessions in which the individuals said they had been tortured, when clear and visible signs of mistreatment were evident. Human Rights Watch, based in New York, said it had no evidence that British officials directly participated in the torture. Britain"s Foreign Office rejected the claims. It said the report"s allegations were not new, that the government has responded to them in Parliament, and that some of the cases mentioned had already been considered and rejected by U.K. courts. «The government rejects in the strongest possible terms the suggestion that a policy of complicity in torture has been in place,» the ministry said in a statement. «There is no truth in suggestions that the Security and Intelligence Services operate without control or oversight.» Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Home Secretary Alan Johnson said Britain does not collude in torture, but that it is impossible to guarantee detainees are not mistreated by foreign governments. The ministers have said previously that intelligence gathering operations have been abandoned in cases where the risk of an individual being mistreated was judged to be too high.
