Web pages about "Jordan"

UK deportation policy questioned by court

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:52:36 +0100

The UK government's policy of "deportation with assurances" was called into question on Wednesday by decisions of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in two key cases. The cases are that of Abu Qatada, a Jordanian national, and that of two Libyan nationals, referred to for the purposes of legal proceedings in the UK as "DD" and "AS".

The UK has been seeking for some years to deport a number of individuals whom it alleges pose a threat to national security. It has acknowledged that these individuals could not ordinarily be deported, because of the real risk of grave human rights violations that they would face in the countries to which they are to be returned.

The UK government has therefore sought, in each of these cases, so-called ‘diplomatic assurances’ from the countries to which these individuals are to be returned that the individual will be treated in accordance with international human rights standards. These promises are unenforceable in any court of law.

Amnesty International has long argued that the UK government's policy of "deportation with assurances" undermines the absolute prohibition of torture. In particular, the policy is not compatible with the obligation, under international law, not to send individuals to countries where they face a real risk of grave human rights violations, including torture or other ill-treatment.

In both of today's cases, although on different grounds, the Court of Appeal ruled that the UK could not lawfully proceed with the deportations.

In the cases of "DD" and "AS", the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), the court of first instance in these cases, that the assurances obtained from Libya by the UK in the form of a "Memorandum of Understanding" were not sufficient to protect them from a real risk of torture or other ill-treatment if they were to be returned to Libya and that they could not, therefore, be deported.

The Court of Appeal ruled, in Abu Qatada’s case, that the SIAC was entitled to find that so-called diplomatic assurances can sometimes be relied on to protect people against a real risk of very serious violations of their human rights, including the risk of being tortured and the risk of being subjected to a flagrantly unfair trial.

Amnesty International has voiced concern about this part of the decision. The organization argues that the unfair procedures the SIAC follows, which include the use of secret material in secret sessions of the court, makes it extremely hard to mount an effective challenge in the SIAC to the use of these assurances.

"If the Court of Appeal is unwilling to question the SIAC’s findings on the reliability of these assurances, there is real doubt over whether there is any genuine route open to the individuals who face deportation on the strength of such assurances to challenge their use," the organization said.

The Court of Appeal recognized, however, that the trial that Abu Qatada would face on his return to Jordan would amount to a flagrant violation of the right to a fair trial, and that the assurances given in his case offered no protection against that. The trial would be flagrantly unfair because it would very probably allow evidence that had been obtained by torture to be used against him. It therefore ruled that his deportation could not go ahead.

In the light of today’s decisions, Amnesty International has called on the UK government to abandon its dangerous and discredited policy of relying on unenforceable promises to get around its obligations not to send people to countries where they will face a real risk of grave human rights violations.

Jordan: 'Your confessions are ready to sign!'

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:01:37 +0000

"They put out their cigarettes on my hand, beat me with sticks on my body...then hit me on the feet continuously for three hours... I told him I was ready to say anything he wanted, so they carried me on a stretcher, as I was unable to walk, back to the interrogation offices." - Usama Abu Hazeem

Jordan detains and tortures political and security suspects. Its military security agency – the General Intelligence Department – uses torture methods such as the "falaqa" – beating the soles of the feet with a stick, and the "shabeh" (phantom) - suspension from handcuffed wrists for several hours and then beatings.

The "confessions” then extracted appear to be regularly used as evidence before a Special Security Court that has so far failed to properly investigate any of the 100 allegations of torture submitted over the last 10 years. Some suspects have even been executed on the basis of “confessions” extracted under torture.

Perhaps unsurprisingly therefore, Jordan seems to have become a central hub in the global complex of secret detention centres operated in coordination with foreign intelligence agencies as part of the “war on terror”. At least 10 of the individuals tortured or otherwise ill-treated appear to be victims of the US-led "rendition” programme.

The UK has signed a "memorandum of understanding" with the Jordanian authorities that supposedly provides "diplomatic assurances" that certain Jordanian nationals will not be tortured if the UK forcibly sends them to Jordan. Given the complicity of Jordanian authorities in the practice of torture however, any such agreements are clearly not worth the paper they are written on.

The Jordanian government has a responsibility to maintain public safety and bring to justice any perpetrators of attacks on civilians, but it is legally bound to do so without resorting to torture and other ill-treatment.

The secretive and illegal US programme of 'rendition'

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:36:54 +0000

"The United States has not transported anyone, and will not transport anyone, to a country when we believe he will be tortured. The United States does not use the airspace or the airports of any country for the purpose of transporting a detainee to a country where he or she will be tortured." US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, December 5, 2005

"It never, never crossed my mind that I’d end up being hauled half way across the world by the Americans to face torture in a place I’d never been - Morocco." - Benyam Mohammed al Habashi, UK resident / Ethiopian national, who was arrested in Pakistan and is now detained in Guantánamo Bay.

Salah 'Ali Qaru finally emerged free from detention around midnight on 27 March. In nearly three years, the 27-year-old Yemeni was tortured in Jordan, flown from country to country, held for over a year in an unknown location and denied access to the outside world.

Salah 'Ali Qaru became one of probably hundreds of people caught up in the secretive and illegal US programme of "rendition". The CIA has used private aircraft operators and front companies to preserve the secrecy of their rendition flights, but nearly 1,000 flights have been identified as being directly linked to the CIA.

Salah 'Ali Qaru was then flown from his secret detention site to Yemen, where he was held for more than nine months without charge, before finally being charged with forging documents and released. He has never been charged with any terrorism-related offence.

His life has been destroyed. He has been traumatized by his ordeal. He has a two-year-old daughter he has never seen. His wife is destitute, living in Indonesia not knowing where he was for most of his detention. He doesn't know if he'll have the money or permission to return to his wife and child in Indonesia.

Salah Qaru's story and those of his country-men Muhammad Bashmilah and Muhammad al-Assad, who were also detained in the same secret facility, are just three of a handful of known cases. Potentially hundreds more remain completely secret. Renditions involve the transfer of people from one country to another in ways that bypass all judicial and administrative due process.

UK government’s 'war on terror' policies put people at risk of torture

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:23:11 +0000

"Dear Mr Tony Blair… Please can you give me an answer to my question? Why is my dad in prison? Why is he far away in that Guantánamo Bay?". Anas al-Banna, son of Jamil al-Banna, when he wrote to the UK Prime Minister.

UK residents Jamil al-Banna, a Jordanian national, and Bisher al-Rawi, an Iraqi national, were arrested in Gambia in 2002, transferred to a US base in Afghanistan and then sent to Guantánamo. The UK authorities were implicated in their unlawful transfer to US custody.

The UK government has refused to date to make representations on behalf of these two men and another UK resident, Libyan national Omar Deghayes. A full judicial review of this refusal is pending.

The UK government has also refused to make representation on behalf of at least five other UK residents who remain in Guantánamo.

Despite Tony Blair’s statement that Guantánamo Bay is "an anomaly that at some point has to be brought to an end", the UK government has failed to follow up these words with strong action.

Moreover, the UK government is trying to undermine the absolute prohibition of torture by seeking to deport people it has labelled "suspected international terrorists" and a "national security threat" to places where they face a real risk of torture or other ill-treatment.

It is doing so by negotiating "diplomatic assurances" – in bi-lateral agreements known as Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) – with governments in countries where torture and other ill-treatment are a persistent problem.

The UK government has signed MoUs with Jordan, Libya and Lebanon and is negotiating agreements with Algeria and Egypt.

The UK’s policies and actions are effectively sending a “green light” to other governments to abuse human rights. The report United Kingdom – Human rights: a broken promise examines the damaging effect of the UK’s antiterrorism policies at home and abroad.

Since the attacks of 11 September 2001 the UK authorities have passed a series of new laws that contain provisions that contravene human rights law, and their implementation has led to serious abuses of human rights and has threatened the independence of the judiciary. These include a new Terrorism Bill, currently before Parliament, that if enacted would undermine the rights to freedom of expression, association, liberty and fair trial.

Conference Report

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 16:40:45 +0000

Amnesty International / Reprieve Conference

The Global Struggle Against Torture: Guantánamo Bay, Bagram and Beyond, 19-21 November 2005

SUMMARY BY DATE:

Saturday, 19 November 2005

Sunday, 20 November 2005

Monday, 21 November 2005

Saturday, 19 November 2005: Torture doesn't stop terror. Torture is terror

Survivors of torture and other ill-treatment in Guantánamo Bay spoke at a conference hosted by Amnesty International (AI) and Reprieve. For several, this was the first time they had seen each other since their release. For two of them, it was the first time they had met, even though they had been held in neighbouring cages.

Eight UK nationals told their stories of how they ended up in Guantánamo and the horrors they endured. In stark contrast to US President George Bush's assertion that the USA does not torture, Moazzam Begg, a UK national who was held in the US-run detention centre, said that "torture does happen, it continues to happen, and it destroys lives."

He and other former detainees spoke of being shackled in painful stress positions, their extreme fear and exhaustion, the lack of medical care, the beatings and broken bones. They highlighted how the rule of law was denied to those in Guantánamo. One reported that, on arrival, he was told by a US soldier "you have no rights to make a phone call, to see a lawyer, to do anything except what we tell you."

With torture thriving in secrecy and the US government blocking meaningful access to Guantánamo, Clive Stafford Smith, Legal Director of Reprieve, said, "if we open Guantánamo up, they will have to close it down."

A panel of experts looked at how to challenge the practice of "outsourcing" torture and the use of "evidence" obtained from torture abroad. Governments that want to ignore the ban on sending people to countries where they risk torture or other ill-treatment have sought "diplomatic assurances" that the person will not be ill-treated on arrival. These assurances were described as not worth the paper they are written on.

Elsewhere, delegates shared their campaigning and legal strategies to combat torture.

The day ended with several family members in tears, talking about their loved ones in Guantánamo Bay.

The conference continues with detainees, family members, lawyers and other activists not only sharing stories but, as Irene Khan, AI Secretary General, said, "harnessing the voices of all who know that torture doesn't stop terror. Torture is terror."

Sunday, 20 November 2005: Torture is killing a person without them dying

"I didn't want to make a big, grand speech. I am just deeply hurt," a mother said after talking about her son detained in Guantánamo Bay. As they did yesterday at the conference hosted by Amnesty International and Reprieve, family members expressed the difficulties and desperation of not knowing if their loved one is being tortured and whether they will ever see them again.

One US research group estimates there to be some eight to 15 secret detention sites throughout the world in at least eight countries. It's believed that detainees are being moved from site to site to evade public knowledge and scrutiny and that foreign intelligence agents are being used to extract information, usually through torture and ill-treatment.

Prolonged incommunicado detention can amount to torture. A Canadian, picked up in a US Airport, sent to Jordan and then to Syria, agreed -- the 10 months and 10 days he was held alone in a dark cell 0.9 meters long by 1.8 meters deep by 2.1 meters high was torture, as were the beatings he received.

When people are held in secret detention and the authorities refuse to disclose their fate or whereabouts, they are described as having been "disappeared". Such "disappearances" often go hand-in-hand with torture and other ill-treatment.

Family members of people who have been "disappeared" are themselves being ill-treated when deliberately deprived of any information and are desperate for news. But as a panelist noted, "while the government practice of 'disappearances' may erase someone from society for a time, the memory of the person cannot be erased. This memory is what spurs family, friends, activists to search for them, no matter what. Eventually, the truth comes out."

The conference discussed the medical impact and effects of torture. One medical expert described torture as "killing a person without them dying". Juvenile detentions, problems with the repatriation of formers detainees, as well as litigation strategies and the role of the UN in defense of individuals' rights were addressed by ex-detainees, family members, lawyers and other activists.

Despite the immense challenges, participants are making new contacts, sharing ideas and strategies and exploring new approaches to combating torture together.

The conference day ended on a rousing note with an impromptu rap performed by an ex-detainee released earlier this year after more than two and a half years in Guantánamo Bay.

Monday, 21 November 2005: Guantánamo: only the tip of the iceberg

“Where is public outrage?" asked Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International, on the final day of conference the organisation has hosted with Reprieve conference.

In the past three days, the conference has highlighted Guantánamo, where many conference delegates have spent time, as the public face of authority stepping outside the rule law in the name of the "war on terror".

However, Guantánamo is only the tip of an iceberg of abuse. Secret detentions, renditions, unfair trials and "disappearances" are practices that fuel torture and create division; ultimately endangering us all.

"We are forced to grapple with a betrayal of common values, double standards and double speak," Ms. Khan said. "Only through continuing to work together: ex-detainees, families, lawyers and other activists -- using a variety of tactics, from media work to litigation, demonstrations to letter-writing -- can we end the abuse and combat impunity for torture and other ill-treatment."

"Through AI's global network of activists in 74 countries, we must galvanize public opinion to work towards achieving security through the respect of human rights and dignity. We each must take the responsibility of shattering public apathy. "

In the words of Clive Stafford-Smith, Reprieve's Legal Director: "What are YOU going to do about it?"