UN takes aim at British terror role

In an investigation spanning 19 countries, four independent UN bodies interviewed victims of secret detention and canvassed governments in order to understand and redress the victims' plight.

A UN report, published by the body's human rights council on Wednesday, found that Britain knew about US rendition practices as far back as 2002 yet continued to hand prisoners over for torture and was complicit in such abuse on three continents.

The committee further found that Britain had knowingly received information obtained by interrogations at "ghost" detention sites and it questioned the way British security services are policed and investigated.

UN specialists interviewed former prisoners and torture victims including former Guantanamo and Bagram prisoners Moazzam Begg, Binyam Mohamed and Omar Deghayes who allege British secret service complicity in their torture and abuse.

Commenting on the UN findings, legal action charity Reprieve director Clive Stafford Smith said: "Sadly, our government has teamed up with unscrupulous, mafia-like regimes that are in the habit of disappearing people, using information extracted by violence, keeping secrets and protecting their thugs and cronies.

"It is shameful that it takes a UN report to reveal these shoddy practices to the British people."

The very least the government should do is publish its official guidance on intelligence gathering, he said.

But the allegations were strongly refuted by the Foreign Office. A spokesman said it rejected the report as "unsubstantiated and irresponsible.

"The most galling aspect of the report is that, despite being asked in successive meetings with officials to substantiate their claims and provide us with information which would allow us to investigate the allegations, no significant information was provided," he said.

He added that it contained "no new information and repeats unproven allegations as if they were fact."

Amnesty International UK campaigns director Tim Hancock said: "This report is just the latest to shed light on the murky business of the UK's complicity with the secret rendition programme.

"What we now need is a change of policy from our government and an end to its repeated attempts to bury information on rendition.

"Instead of thwarting efforts to discover whether UK officials were part of a programme, any responsible government must now allow a full, independent investigation into this crucial issue."