Britain to Deport Algerian Terror Suspects

[Wokeman]

Saturday January 20, 03:30 PM

LONDON (Reuters) - Four Algerian men held without trial in Britain as national security threats have agreed to be deported voluntarily, a lawyer for three of the men told Reuters on Saturday.

Human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce said the men had chosen to face possible torture in Algeria rather than endure indefinite detention in Britain.

"Each man wanted to clear his name but secret evidence and secret courts never allowed him a chance to do so," she said.
"For these men there have been no convictions, no proper accusations, no knowledge of what is alleged against them and, astonishingly, for most, no questioning by police to discover whether untested secret assumptions might be wrong," she added.

She said some of the men, who cannot be named because of a court order, had been held without trial for five years.

They were among a number of foreign terror suspects imprisoned indefinitely under emergency post-September 11 powers who Britain could not deport because of human rights fears they would be tortured in their home country.

After British judges ruled their detention was illegal they were released under "control orders" but have since been held again pending their deportation.

Last August a secret British court -- the Special Immigration Appeals Commission -- allowed a terrorism suspect to be deported to Algeria, citing improvements in the North African country's human rights record.

But Peirce said assurances Algeria had given Britain it would not mistreat deported terrorism suspects were "worthless, vague and unenforceable."

Human rights group Amnesty International said in a report last year that Algerian security forces regularly torture detainees.

Peirce said the men's families in Algeria had been questioned at the request of the British government.

"Each man believes he faces torture or death, not because he has committed any offence, but because he has been branded, in large part by the UK.

"Each has concluded that he cannot by staying here ever hope to eradicate that branding," she said.

The Home Office said it could not comment on "operational matters".

"It remains our view that those detained or on strict bail represent a real risk to the national security of this country," it said in a statement.

Peirce said there was confusion over when the three men she represented would be leaving Britain after departure dates they had been given were withdrawn.

One had been due to go on Friday, and the other two had been expecting to depart on Saturday and Monday.

She said that she believed the fourth detainee may have left Britain for Algeria on Saturday.

[Wokeman]

I believe this is the most disgraceful judicial charade to have taken place in the courts of so-called democratic country ANYWHERE in the world of which I have ever, ever heard. And anyone who represents that legal process should hang their head in shame.