‘Extraordinary rendition’ refers to the deliberate transfer of detainees to foreign countries for interrogation, in the knowledge that that they may be tortured. Because extraordinary rendition is carried out by states outside of established legal procedures, it lacks safeguards and transparency.

Liberty believes that torture is never justified. The British government has a responsibility to ensure that its security services, and any other public bodies, are not complicit in torture in any way.
In February 2008, the UK Government acknowledged that UK airspace and territory have been used for rendition flights – the small island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Find out more 

On 27 February 2009 the Defence Secretary admitted that the government had yet again misled Parliament regarding extraordinary rendition. He acknowledged for the first time that UK forces had handed over individuals in Iraq to US authorities who then rendered them to an Afghan prison known for its inhuman conditions.

Rather than this poisonous leak of revelations Liberty has called on the government to carry out a full and independent inquiry into the UK’s involvement or knowledge of extraordinary rendition.

Binyam Mohamed

Binyam Mohamed was released from Guantanamo Bay in March 2009 , and claims that he was tortured with the collusion of the British security services.

Mr Mohamed was arrested in Pakistan in April 2002, and transferred to Morocco in July of that year before being moved to Kabul, a US military prison and finally Guantanamo.

Whilst in Morocco, Mr Mohamed claims that his interrogators used personal information they could have only received from the British authorities, including detailed information about his life in the UK, people he knew and his education. He says that he was shown photographs which his interrogators told him had been provided by MI5.

In March 2009, the Attorney General announced that Binyam Mohamed’s claims of kidnap and torture would be the subject of a criminal investigation, but Liberty called for a full judicial inquiry into all British involvement in extraordinary rendition.

In February 2010 the Court of Appeal ordered the publication of 7 paragraphs of a High Court judgment summarising the UK authorities' knowledge of Binyam Mohammed's torture whilst in US custody.

The Foreign Secretary had fought for these embarrassing paragraphs to remain secret. Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty, said:

"The Government has gone to extraordinary lengths to cover up kidnap and torture. A full public inquiry is now inescapable.”