By IRNA
London : A former SAS soldier has been served with a High Court order after making claims about the UK’s involvement in the rendition of hundreds of Iraqis and Afghanistan captured by US and British special forces, it was reported Friday.
According to the Guardian newspaper, Ben Griffin has been gagged with the threat of jail if he makes further disclosures about how people were allegedly seized and tortured and ended up in secret prisons in breach of the Geneva conventions and international law.
It comes after Griffin, who left the British Army in protest after serving in Iraq, accused the UK government of being “deeply involved” in the process, in which US forces have transported terror suspects for interrogation, since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.
He told a London press conference that after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the US-UK task force, of which he was a member, appeared with “its primary mission was to kill or capture high value targets.” “Individuals detained by this Task Force often included non- combatants caught up in the search for high value targets,” said the former SAS soldier.
He said that the use of secret detention centers within Iraq has “negated the need to use Guantanamo Bay whilst allowing similar practice to go unnoticed.”
The Guardian did not report how the gagging order was granted, but only said that Britain’s Ministry of Defence did not comment on special forces’ activities.
The former SAS soldier said that many operations were conducted to apprehend high value targets and numerous non-combatants were detained and interrogated, which were in “direct contravention of the Geneva Convention regarding the treatment of civilians.”
“I have no doubt in my mind that non-combatants I personally detained were handed over to the Americans and subsequently tortured,” he said.
Human rights groups have long called for an independent inquiry into the role of the UK Government in the process of rendition, but this has been rejected by the government.