{"id":12734,"date":"2018-05-22T16:05:28","date_gmt":"2018-05-22T16:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reprieve.org.uk\/?post_type=update&#038;p=12734"},"modified":"2020-05-28T15:03:48","modified_gmt":"2020-05-28T15:03:48","slug":"blairs-comments-underscore-need-for-independent-belhaj-inquiry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reprieve.org\/uk\/2018\/05\/22\/blairs-comments-underscore-need-for-independent-belhaj-inquiry\/","title":{"rendered":"Blair&#8217;s Comments Underscore Need For Independent Belhaj Inquiry"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>\n<h2>Former PM denies knowledge of Abdul Hakim Belhaj and Fatima Boudchar rendition<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h2>Mountain of evidence amassed by Reprieve and Scotland Yard<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h2>Full public inquiry needed for British public to know the truth<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On the Today programme this morning, former Prime Minister Tony Blair again denied that he knew about the rendition of Abdul Hakim Belhaj and Fatima Boudchar to Libya in 2004 \u2013 the same month as his infamous \u2018deal in the desert\u2019 with Muammar Gaddafi.<\/p>\n<p>He declined to echo Theresa May\u2019s fulsome apology to Mr Belhaj and his wife, saying only that he was \u201ccontent\u201d to \u201cgo along\u201d with the Government\u2019s apology. He insinuated that there was more to the story than he can publicly discuss. \u201cT<em>here&#8217;s a lot of things in this case, some of which have been out in the media, some of which have not,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that&#8217;s all I can say<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cMr Blair\u2019s non-apology to Mr Belhaj and his wife raised more questions than it answered. His hug with Gaddafi happened just two weeks after Belhaj and his wife were delivered to Tripoli, and two days before MI6 helped abduct another entire family for the Libyan dictator.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sir Mark Allen\u2019s infamous fax to Moussa Koussa, in which he called my clients &#8216;air cargo,&#8217; also shows him personally arranging Blair\u2019s mission to Libya in minute detail &#8211; down to asking for the photo op to be held in Gaddafi&#8217;s tent because &#8216;the journalists would love it&#8217;. Perhaps Mr Blair would like to publish the &#8216;five requests&#8217; Gaddafi made to him directly in a letter in October 2003 as they sought to strike a deal. Are we meant to believe the dictator never mentioned the &#8216;stray dogs\u2019 he hated so much?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Both Reprieve and Scotland Yard amassed a mountain of evidence about this case. If the British public want the whole truth and nothing but the truth, let\u2019s have a full public inquiry and be done with it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Cori Crider Reprieve lawyer for&nbsp;Mr Belhaj and Ms Boudchar\u2019s<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There is ample evidence about the Belhaj rendition in the public record. Files out of Tripoli show that a Libyan dissident and his pregnant wife were abducted by the CIA, with the help of British intelligence; that they were delivered to Gaddafi\u2019s torturers in Tripoli; and that MI6\u2019s second-in-command took credit for the operation, in a fax to Libya\u2019s secret service.<\/p>\n<p>But Mr Blair is correct about one thing: there is much we still don\u2019t know about the extent of British complicity in these abuses.<\/p>\n<p>In 2010, Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs that only a \u201cjudge-led inquiry\u201d could \u201cget to the bottom\u201d of the British role in rendition and torture. Two years later, the Detainee Inquiry steered by Sir Peter Gibson was wound up. The Lord Chancellor at the time, Ken Clarke, promised: \u201cThe Government fully intends to hold an independent, judge-led inquiry once all police investigations have concluded.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Following the historic apology to Mr Belhaj and Ms Boudchar from Theresa May, that moment is upon us. While the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament may wish to examine the case, that is only a starting point: the government has a veto over its key functions such as what material can be made public. Only a statutory, judge-led inquiry can provide the answers the country needs.<\/p>\n<p>In accepting the government\u2019s apology, Mr Belhaj said Britain had set \u201can example for other nations to follow.\u201d If the UK is to live up to Theresa May\u2019s promise to \u201cprovide a moral lead in the world,\u201d it should establish, once and for all, how it failed Mr Belhaj and Ms Boudchar so badly.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI think the people of Britain have the good sense not to get distracted by spin in my case. To me, this just shows how sensible the current Prime Minister and Attorney General were to do the honourable thing and apologise. Mrs May had it right: my wife and I were \u2018subjected to appalling treatment\u2019 and Britain should never have been involved. My wife and I have accepted her apology. If the people of Britain want to know more, that is a democratic matter between them and their government.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Abdul Hakim Belhaj<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former PM denies knowledge of Abdul Hakim Belhaj and Fatima Boudchar rendition. Only a full inquiry can get to the truth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-update"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Blair&#039;s Comments Underscore Need For Independent Belhaj Inquiry<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/reprieve.org\/uk\/2018\/05\/22\/blairs-comments-underscore-need-for-independent-belhaj-inquiry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blair&#039;s Comments Underscore Need For Independent Belhaj Inquiry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former PM denies knowledge of Abdul Hakim Belhaj and Fatima Boudchar rendition. 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