UK Rights Group Accuses Britain on Rendition Cases

[Coventina]

Source: New York Times

LONDON (AP) -- A legal rights group said Monday the British government misled parliament about two terrorism suspects who were subjected to rendition.

Clive Stafford Smith, director of the London-based rights group Reprieve, said the government must reveal what it knows about the cases of two men captured by British soldiers in Iraq in 2004 and turned over to American forces, who flew them to Afghanistan, where they remain incarcerated.

Reprieve is bringing legal action against Britain to force it to reveal more about the cases, which first came to light in February when John Hutton, Britain's defense secretary at the time, told parliament the two suspects were members of a banned Pakistani extremist group known as Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Hutton's statement came after British officials had denied for years that they were involved in cases of ''extraordinary rendition'' -- in which someone suspected of supporting terrorism is transferred to a foreign nation for imprisonment and interrogation without formal charges or trial.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/12/07/world/AP-EU-Britain-Rendition-Inquiry.html