Islam Times - UK’s MI6 was complicit in Belhadj rendition to Libya

Islam Times - A letter from a senior MI6 officer has confirmed the UK government’s involvement in the rendition of Abdel Hakim Belhadj, commander of anti-Gaddafi forces, a news report says.

The British government initially denied complicity in the rendition of Belhadj to Libya in 2004, but the letter found at an intelligence center after the fall of the despotic regime led by Muammar Gaddafi has revealed the role Britain played in the rendition scenario.

The new evidence proves that Belhadj’s rendition was given ministerial approval at the time, and exposes the fact that he was tortured in jail both at the hands of UK and US agents who captured and rendered him from Bangkok to Libya and at the hands of Muammar Gaddafi’s interrogators in Libya’s feared prisons.

The letter from the senior MI6 officer, Sir Mark Allen, to Gaddafi's intelligence chief, Musa Kusa, was found last year in the rubble of Musa Kusa's headquarters, which were bombed by NATO military alliance.

Britain regarded Belhadj as a terrorist who had met Osama Bin Laden during the Afghan jihad against the Russians in the late 1980s, and whose “group MI5 believed was involved in recruiting young British Muslims”, the BBC reported.

MI6 informed its foreign intelligence partners, and as a result Belhadj was intercepted in Bangkok, presumably by the CIA, and rendered to Libya.

The letter suggests MI6 was complicit in Belhadj's illegal rendition and alleged torture in Libya - but that MI6 was not acting unilaterally.

He says his understanding is that MI6 obtained authorization from the Labour government of the time for its action.

Belhadj - now a senior military commander in the new Libya - is suing MI6 and the British government, accusing them of complicity in his illegal rendition and torture.