Facebook icon
Twitter icon
e-mail icon

War crimes complaint filed against British Government

A complaint against the British Government has been filed by legal charity Reprieve in regards to the failure of the government to secure the release of a Pakistani man, held in Bagram airbase in Afghanistan.

Yunus Rahmatullah was captured by British forces in 20054 and was then handed to the US military who have held him without charges ever since.

Last December three judges ruled that Rahmatullah should be freed but on Monday appeal judges cancelled the release order after being told that American authorities were not going to "play ball" and British ministers had "reached the end of the road".

The legal team representing the Foreign Office said the US is not prepared to transfer Rahmatullah and had no obligation to do so under international law.

In a letter to the Metropolitan police commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, Rahmatullah's lawyers at the legal charity Reprieve said that he and another man were severely abused in Iraq before being taken out of the country, in breach of the Geneva Conventions.

"The evidence that certain war crimes were committed also seems beyond dispute," they wrote.

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

For more ways to donate visit https://donate.tamilguardian.com.