Leigh Day & Co has issued parallel judicial review proceedings in the Supreme Court of the British Indian Ocean Territory and the High Court of England & Wales on behalf of Mr Mohammed Madni.
Mr Madni believes that he is one of the two victims of extraordinary rendition and torture who the British Government has admitted were rendered through the British territory of Diego Garcia. There is considerable circumstantial evidence to support this claim. However, the UK Government has refused to confirm or deny that Mr Madni was indeed one of the two confirmed victims or provide any other information about what they know about his rendition and treatment.
Diego Garcia is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory and the island is notorious for being the site of a large US military base and for the eviction of the local population – the Chagossians – to make way for the base in the early 1970s. Although leased to the US, the island remains British territory and is staffed by British administrators and soldiers.
On 21 February 2008, David Miliband gave a statement to Parliament conceding that, contrary to earlier blanket denials, Diego Garcia had been used in the US programme of extraordinary rendition and that two individuals were rendered through the island in 2002, one in January the other in September.
Mr Madni was kidnapped in Jakarta in January 2002 and flown to Cairo by US personnel where he was tortured in the most brutal fashion for three months. En route his plane landed somewhere unknown and he was photographed by US military personnel. After Cairo he was flown to Afghanistan where he suffered further ill-treatment and was held for around a year before being flown to Guantanamo Bay. He was finally released without charge from Guantanamo in August 2008.
The legal proceedings seek to compel the UK to either confirm or deny that Mr Madni was indeed rendered through Diego Garcia and, if the former, to provide all information which is held either in Diego Garcia or in London.
It is necessary to bring parallel legal proceedings because Diego Garcia is outside the jurisdiction of the High Court and any documentation or information held there must be obtained through the Supreme Court of the British Indian Ocean Territory (“BIOT”). It is believed that this may be only the second legal case brought in the BIOT Supreme Court.
Mr Madni believes that the case will confirm that he was the victim of unlawful rendition through Diego Garcia and will help him obtain independent evidence of his kidnap, rendition and torture – something which the US continues to deny. It is hoped that such evidence will enable Mr Madni to seek some redress for his suffering.
Richard Stein, partner at Leigh Day & Co said: “It is a matter of great concern that a UK territory was used for illegal renditions which facilitated the US in its torture programme. It is unacceptable that the UK Government is not now prepared to come clean and give Mr Madni the information which he needs to help him to obtain justice.”
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