UK terror suspects say torture taints US evidence

Lawyers for 10 foreign terrorism suspects in Britain asked the Appeals Court to throw out evidence gathered at US prison camps, where they say Washington practises torture.

If allowed to proceed, the case could expose a rift between the two allies over the treatment of prisoners at US bases in Afghanistan, Cuba and elsewhere, after recent revelations of mistreatment in Iraq.

The 10 are among 17 foreigners declared "suspected international terrorists" by the British government and held indefinitely without charge under emergency powers passed after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Although evidence against them is secret, some of it is believed to come from US interrogations of suspects in prison camps abroad. A secret tribunal has ruled that the British government can use evidence to justify holding them, even if it was obtained by torture.

But in an appeal at Britain's Royal Courts of Justice, lawyers for the detainees said the ruling violates fundamental principles of British law.

In a written outline of their arguments, they asked for permission to present new evidence showing "the commission of torture... in US-controlled camps".

"It is an affront to the public conscience for states to rely in judicial procedings on evidence that is derived from torture," lawyer Ben Emmerson told a three-judge panel.

He said it "doesn't matter one jot" whether Britain tortured detainees itself or used evidence obtained by torture abroad.

Britain's emergency post-September 11 anti-terrorism powers have become increasingly controversial as reports emerge of mistreatment of prisoners held by the United States outside normal judicial procedures.

One of the British detainees was freed in March when the government lost its first case. The secret Special Immigration Appeals Commission ruled that the man, known only as M, had been wrongly imprisoned although no evidence showed he was a threat.

Another prisoner was moved to house arrest on health grounds after the tribunal ruled that his detention without charge had driven him insane. Another has been moved to a high security mental hospital where he has tried to kill himself.

Under the powers, the British government can hold foreigners if it has "reasonable grounds" to suspect they might be a threat. To enact the measures it had to declare a formal "public emergency threatening the life of the nation", allowing it to suspend rights guaranteed under European law.

Mr Emmerson said he would seek to show that the secret tribunal did not look closely enough into the government's case, or properly consider whether the suspects were actually part of the national emergency that justified suspending their basic rights.

The emergency powers have to be renewed by parliament, and a cross-party committee looking into them has concluded they should be scrapped immediately. But the government says it still needs them to fight terrorism.

The House of Lords, Britain's highest court, is due to hear a challenge in October to the decision to suspend parts of the European Convention on Human Rights to pass the bills.