A great week for Reprieve's fight against UK complicity in torture

Two of Reprieve’s toughest projects have turned a corner this week: our court battle over torture policy, and our call for a full public inquiry into allegations of complicity in torture by the British secret services.

On Monday, Reprieve’s ‘torture policy’ litigation forced the Coalition government to commit to creating new guidelines for British secret agents.

 In our application for judicial review, we told the court why current secret guidelines may have allowed our secret services to be complicit in the torture of prisoners abroad. We asked the judge to review the official policy; regulating how MI5/MI6 operatives conduct themselves when interviewing prisoners overseas, and to declare it unlawful. 

The government immediately told the court that it would avoid the review by publishing new and revised guidance 'shortly'. We’re acutely aware that the Brown government had promised this updated guidance since March 2009. 

There is now no excuse for delay: not only has the new government now made a clear promise to the court, but until the new guidance is published, we can only assume that the old regime of possible prisoner abuse continues.

Provided that the government acts promptly – by which we mean that it has already warmed the printers – Reprieve’s case has achieved a major goal and can rest there. If the guidance is not immediately published, we have told the government that we will be back in court.

Meanwhile, after a decade of allegations of secret service complicity in torture, the need for a full public inquiry is urgent.  As a result of several years of demands, and several months of briefing by Reprieve, the Government appears on the verge of announcing that an inquiry will take place

We’ve offered the government our assistance in the establishment and running of the inquiry, and have written to them setting out how an inquiry might work, and what it must consider. There’s no reason why the inquiry can’t be forensic, complete, and efficient. We’ve made that clear to the government, as you can see from the letters below.