As Abdel Hakim Belhaj appeals the ruling that barred him from suing MI6 for its role in his rendition and torture in 2004, his lawyer told a British court that UK government officials are trying to evade responsibility and prevent the case from continuing.
Richard Hermer QC, who represents Belhaj, told the judges of UK’s high court on Monday that government officials want “immunity from accountability… irrespective of the illegality of the act.”
“The [British] government is really scraping the legal barrel with this latest attempt to dodge accountability for the UK’s alleged part in one of the most notorious crimes of the rendition program. This makes a mockery of the law. How are courts ever to investigate allegations of rendition if governments are simply going to play the ‘act of state’ card?” —John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International
Belhaj is suing MI6, MI5, the Home Office, the Foreign Office, and other UK intelligence agencies and officials for their collusion in his and his wife’s abduction and rendition to Libya, where they were tortured by security forces of Muammar Gaddafi. Belhaj’s wife, Fatima Boudchar, was pregnant at the time. Belhaj, a prominent Libyan dissident, was a leader of the anti-Gaddafi Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and the Libyan al-Watan party.
The initial case was thrown out in December of last year when a high court ruled that pursuing legal action would damage Britain’s “national interests” and its relations with the U.S. government. The judge in the case, however, said Belhaj had a “well-founded claim” and that he was giving his ruling “with hesitation.” Belhaj won permission to appeal earlier this year.
Belhaj and Boudchar were seized in China in 2004 in an MI6/CIA operation, deported to Malaysia, and flown to Thailand. They were first tortured in a CIA “black site” in Bangkok and then finally taken to Tripoli, where they were jailed for six years. Throughout that time, Belhaj was regularly chained, hung from walls, and beaten, while Boudchar was punched, bound, and denied medical care.
Also named in the case is former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who was in office at the time and allegedly involved in authorizing Belhaj’s kidnapping. Lawyers for Straw have said that he and the other accused agencies should be protected under the “foreign act state of doctrine.”
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