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Old June 1, 2010, 01:01 PM
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Default Fresh torture allegations

A third UK citizen has been detained in Bangladesh and allegedly mistreated while being interrogated about his associates and activities in both countries, raising further concerns about possible British complicity in torture.

Faisal Mostafa is said by his lawyers to have been subjected to "physical torture, threats, coercion and intimidation" when he was being questioned about his work for the Muslim Parliament in London, about associates in the UK who had fought as mujahideen in Afghanistan, and about fundraising activities in the UK.

Mostafa, a chemist from Stockport, Greater Manchester – who was once accused, but cleared, of involvement in al-Qaida's first plot to attack the UK – is said to have been suspended from his wrists and his ankles for long periods, subjected to electric shocks, beaten on the soles of his feet, deprived of food and exposed to bright lights for long periods.

Members of his legal team told the Guardian that the periods during which Mostafa was suspended lasted for days rather than hours. Another person familiar with the defence being mounted by Mostafa's lawyers said: "Faisal was tortured. And his questioning was mainly about what was going on abroad in the UK."

The allegations relate to the period of his detention following his arrest in March last year. Earlier this year he was released on bail and is receiving hospital treatment in Dhaka for acute renal failure which his lawyers blame, in part, on his mistreatment.

Lawyers representing two other British nationals of Bangladeshi origin have said they were detained and tortured while being questioned about terrorism offences, and allege there is clear evidence that MI5 was involved in the mistreatment. One of the men, Gulam Mustafa, a businessman from Birmingham, who is no relation, remains in custody. When brought before court last month after several weeks in an interrogation centre, a journalist working for the Guardian could see that the man appeared too exhausted to stand, at one point sinking to his knees in the dock, while relatives say his face was swollen.

Counterterrorism officials in Dhaka have told the Guardian that, at the request of UK intelligence officials, they have investigated about 12 British nationals of Bangladeshi origin in recent years, and indicated that this was done in a manner that would have been unlawful in Britain. One senior Bangladeshi official said the questions that were being asked about these individuals "could not have been dealt with by British law - because of the question of human rights". The official declined to elaborate.

British security and intelligence officials warned three years ago that significant numbers of Britons were travelling to Bangladesh to receive terrorism training.

The country remains a concern to officials, as assessments of the terrorist threat to the UK suggest an ever-changing picture. Known or suspected plots with links to Pakistan have reduced slightly in number, while Somalia and Yemen – and to a lesser extent Bangladesh – now pose potential problems.

It is thought that one British-Bangladeshi man has killed himself in a suicide bomb attack, possibly in Afghanistan.

However, the emergence of another case of alleged British collusion in foreign torture is likely to lead to renewed calls from civil liberties campaigners for the coalition government to establish a judicial inquiry to examine the UK's role in rendition and torture.

Earlier this month William Hague, the foreign secretary, said there would be "an inquiry of some form" into allegations of complicity in torture, but did not give any further details. Whitehall officials later said the promise "came out of the blue" and suggested that any such inquiry would be held in secret.

That is unlikely to satisfy human rights groups and backbench MPs, who believe it should be held in public, and insist that it should examine the extent to which decisions taken by ministers in the last government led to abuses.

Faisal Mostafa, 46, came to the attention of MI5 in the mid-90s, having been acquitted of conspiring to cause explosions, after a trial in Manchester in 1996. He was sentenced to four years for illegal possession of a pistol with intent to endanger life.

Four years later he was arrested in Birmingham and accused of conspiring to cause explosions after police and MI5 officers discovered chemicals that could be used to produce the high explosive HMTD, along with a number of detonators, at a house in the city. Traces of the explosive were also found on the pin-stripe jacket he was wearing at the time of his arrest.

Mostafa did not deny an interest in explosives - the court heard that the tips of several of his fingers had been blown off during one experiment in the mid-80s - but denied being a terrorist, and was again acquitted. His co-defendant was convicted and jailed for 20 years. In 2006 John Reid, then home secretary, cited this case when insisting that al-Qaida's plots against the UK preceded the UK's involvement in the invasion of Iraq or in the war in Afghanistan.

After being detained and allegedly tortured in Bangladesh in March last year, Mostafa is said to have been questioned about his co-defendants in both these trials. When he was brought to court a month later, accused of hoarding firearms and explosives at a madrasa he was managing at Bhola, in the south-west of the country, the magistrate questioned him about each case.

Mostafa was arrested by a Bangladeshi unit called the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), days after the weapons were alleged to have been discovered. He was held at a secret location by RAB - notorious in Bangladesh for reports of hundreds of extrajudicial killings and frequent use of torture - for about 13 days before his capture was officially announced. RAB said at the time of his arrest, they had "shared information" with British intelligence as part of "bilateral co-operation".

Mostafa is accused of running a terrorism training camp at the madrasa, employing funds raised through a charity, Green Crescent Bangladesh UK, that he ran from Stockport. He denies the charges.

The allegations of torture, and of the effects on his health, are disclosed in some detail in a bail application that his lawyers lodged with the courts late last year.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010...re-allegations
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