'Torture' Committee Calls For Inquiry

MPs and Peers have called for an independent inquiry into allegations MI5 officers endorsed torture techniques against terror suspects.

A parliamentary committee failed to establish whether British intelligence officers backed controversial and illegal questioning methods.

Criticism was directed at officers and ministers who refused to meet with the Joint Human Rights Committee.

Foreign Affairs Minister Ivan Lewis told the BBC today: "We neither engage in, collude with or condone torture."

The minister said he did not believe British officers were complicit in alleged torture.

However, the Westminster committee Chair Andrew Dismore said: "It is unacceptable both for ministers to refuse to answer policy questions about the Security Services, and for the Director General of MI5 to answer questions from the press but not from a parliamentary committee."

The MP said: "The allegations we have heard about UK complicity in torture are extremely serious."

Mr Dismore revealed both the foreign secretary and home secretary, as well as the director general of MI5, had declined to give evidence to his committee.

In its report the committee of parliamentarians claimed there was now a "disturbing number of credible allegations" of British complicity in torture.

Several terror suspects, including two convicts, have alleged British officers posed interrogation questions through other foreign security services, and were aware of the torture techniques exercised.

The Metropolitan Police are currently investigating the role of one MI5 officer in the case of UK resident Binyam Mohammed, who was transferred from Pakistan to Morocco, before being taken to Guantanamo Bay.

The Joint Human Rights Committee report said: "An independent inquiry is the only way to get to the bottom of these stories, clear the air and make recommendations for the future conduct and management of the security services."

Refusal by some to take part in the committee investigation was said to be in the 'interest of national security', an argument former shadow home secretary David Davis insisted was "grotesquely misused".

The government has said it will not support an independent inquiry, stating it "works hard with its international partners to eradicate this abhorrent practice worldwide".

(PR/BMcc)