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Lords reiterate stand against torture

Hasan Suroor

Civil rights organisations hail the ruling, term it "a momentous decision''

LONDON: In a new turn to the controversy over use of torture to extract information from terror suspects, the House of Lords has ruled that intelligence obtained under torture even in a third country cannot be used as evidence in British courts.

The landmark unanimous ruling, which embarrassed the Blair Government but was hailed by human rights groups, followed an appeal on behalf of a group of alleged suspects who had challenged their detention claiming that evidence against them was obtained under torture.

One had alleged that he had been tortured during custody in Pakistan.

Detenus to benefit

The ruling is likely to benefit other foreign nationals held on suspicion of terrorist activity and awaiting deportation to their native countries. This is the second blow to the Government's terror strategy after the Lords ruled last year that indefinite detention of foreign suspects without trial was illegal. And more recently, the Government was defeated in the Commons over a proposal to detain suspects for up to 90 days for interrogation.

The verdict came amid a trans-Atlantic row over allegations that the CIA secretly operated hundreds of flights through British and other European airports to transport terror suspects to countries where they might have been tortured.

Civil rights organisations called it a "momentous'' ruling. Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty hailed it as an "incredibly important'' development, saying that the Law Lords had sent a "signal across the democratic world'' that there would be no compromise on torture.

The Government tried to put up a brave front with the Home Secretary Charles Clarke declaring that it would have "no bearing'' on its efforts to combat terrorism.

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