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First British Citizen Convicted of Terrorism

By possum

From the UK comes an a href=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article5365911.eceannouncement/a of the conviction this week of the first British citizen to be found guilty of terrorism.blockquoteRangzieb Ahmed, 33, was part of a three-man cell on an unknown terrorist operation in Dubai and Saudi Arabia in December 2005 that was aborted/blockquoteThe conviction came after an 11 week trial. br / Ahmed was arrested in Pakistan in 2006blockquoteBefore the trial the judge, Mr Justice Saunders, rejected an application by the defence team that the case should be thrown out because British intelligence services had colluded in Rangzieb's torture while he was detained in Pakistan./blockquote pa href=http://cageprisoners.com/Cage Prisoners/a has Ahmed's a href=http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=27239testimony/a [personal statment?? nbsp;The source is not entirely clear.] nbsp;Ahmed claims he was in Pakistan as part of a relief organization. nbsp;He was taken into custody en route from Mansira to Islamabad.blockquoterecall that 5-6 males approached the passenger side of the vehicle, opened the door and one male grabbed both my hands pushed them together and pulled me out of the car. I was pulled out of the car and made to stand facing them with my back to the vehicle at which point two of the males searched me./blockquote pAhmed was put in a separate vehicle for transport.blockquoteThe doors were shut and then one of the males got a cloth hood and put it over my head; the effect of which was that I could not see anything./blockquote pDuring the initial interrogation Ahmed describes the abuse that was only beginning.blockquoteThey were sitting in front of me when the male in the suit got up on the right side of the table and came up to my right side. He began to hit me hard around my head. He hit me 5-6 times and said I was lying./blockquote pIn another interrogation period Ahmed describes his treatment.blockquoteThey then made me stand up and began to beat me with a wooden stick. This continued for 10-15 minutes at the same time asking me questions./blockquote pEarly in his detention Ahmed describes an instance of torture.blockquoteMy left arm was held down at the wrist at which point the smoker got hold of my small finger of my left hand and he gripped my nail with the pliers and began to pull it back, not forward. I was in extreme pain/blockquote pVisits by both British and American (CIA) personnel followed.blockquoteThey [the CIA] came to see me everyday, the first day being the sixteenth day of my detention. They came to see me for the entire 2 months I was at the interrogation centre and further 6 months when I was removed to the safe house./blockquoteblockquoteAll this stopped in April 2007 when I was sent to Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi. During the questioning by the CIA I was not tortured./blockquote pBut the Americans were seen as complicit.blockquoteThe Americans were aware of my treatment as I told them what happened to me and also that I could not sit straight as I had been hit on my back with a wooden instrument by a male with curly hair. They laughed when they heard this./blockquote pThe entire testimony is a worthy read. nbsp;The ongoing day by day accounts of detention and mistreatment are terrible by any measure. nbsp;If any part is true (and there is recorded physical evidence of finger nails having been pulled) his treatment exemplifies the treatment of far too many in this ongoing pursuit of terrorism. pPeace.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/NionRssFeed?a=osMJO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/NionRssFeed?i=osMJO" border="0"/img/a /div

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on December 22, 2008 (boomark / email).