Group demands UK name suspects handed to US in Iraq

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Mon Aug 17, 2009 12:34pm EDT

* Britain handed suspects to U.S. in Iraq

* Men later transferred to Afghanistan in breach of pact



By Kylie MacLellan

LONDON, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Human rights lawyers will take legal action against the British government unless it names two men captured by British troops in Iraq who were subsequently moved to U.S. custody in Afghanistan, a charity said on Monday.

Britain has confirmed it handed two suspects to U.S. officials in 2004 and that they were subsequently transferred to Afghanistan, breaching U.S.-British agreements not to move suspects out of Iraq without prior consultation.

But the Ministry of Defence did not name the men -- said to be members of Laskhar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based group with links to al Qaeda -- saying it would violate data protection laws.

"The UK has now admitted that they were complicit in a crime," Clive Stafford Smith, director of the British rights group Reprieve, told reporters. "Having admitted that they have been a party to that, they won't tell us who the victims are."

"They won't do the simple thing of telling us who these men are, telling us exactly what their full name is, telling us where their family is, so we can give them free representation. That is all we are asking."

Reprieve believes the men are Pakistanis.

Britain, a staunch U.S. ally in campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, has faced repeated questions about its knowledge of and involvement in the transfer of suspects to third countries by the United States.

The charity has written to Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth asking for the men's names, and says it will sue for disclosure if the government refuses to name them or fails to respond within 21 days.

The Ministry of Defence said in a statement it was "in the process of considering the legal points they have made and will respond in due course".

"These individuals are in the custody of the U.S. government," it added. "The U.S. has assured us the detainees are held in a humane, safe and secure environment." (Editing by Kevin Liffey)




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