British troops are handing over Taliban suspects to the Afghan authorities to face "horrible abuse" and torture in breach of human rights laws, it has been claimed at the High Court.
The UK Government's denials of such abuse were the result of a "head in the sand" attitude, two judges were told. The accusations were made by anti-war activist Maya Evans, from St Leonards, East Sussex, who is seeking judicial review of the Government's detainee transfer policy in Afghanistan.
Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth, who says "safeguards are in place to prevent mistreatment", is opposing Ms Evans's legal challenge, which is expected to last 10 days.
But Ms Evans's QC submitted that the Ministry of Defence and Foreign Office were seeking to protect their detainee transfer policy by adopting the approach "of seeing no evil, hearing no evil and speaking no evil".
Ms Evans is being represented by public interest lawyers, who have gathered together material they say shows a wide range of abuse of suspects handed over to the National Directorate of Security (NDS), a secret service organisation in Afghanistan. They say the "horrific brutality" of NDS is well documented, and the UK detainee transfer policy violates Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects against inhuman and degrading treatment.
To date the lawyers have assembled details of nine cases involving allegations of beatings, electrocution, sleep deprivation, individuals forced into stress positions and whipping with rubber cables.
Michael Fordham QC, appearing for Ms Evans, said in court: "The issue in this anxious case is whether the practice of handing over of suspect insurgents to the NDS is compatible with Article 3."
He told Lord Justice Richards, sitting in London with Mr Justice Cranston: "We will submit emphatically that it is not. It never was.
"It should not have started in July 2006 and it most definitely should have stopped in November 2007."
On November 13 2007, Amnesty International published a report that the NDS was torturing prisoners "and that its abuses remained hidden from view".
