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A BRITISH COURT has ruled that a former Libyan militant can sue a former foreign minister and an ex-MI6 officer over his rendition in a landmark case that could pave the way for more lawsuits.
“The Supreme Court unanimously dismisses the government’s appeals,” the court said in a statement.
Abdelhakim Belhaj, a former Islamist fighter, later became Tripoli’s military commander after Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi was ousted in 2011.
Belhaj has alleged that he and his wife were detained by US intelligence officers at Bangkok airport in Thailand in 2004 when he was leader of the anti-Kadhafi Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.
His wife was several months pregnant at the time.
The couple were then taken to Tripoli, where Belhaj was jailed for six years. Belhaj claims British involvement in his illegal rendition.
Tip-off
Files unearthed from Kadhafi’s archives after his fall suggest he was captured due to a British tip-off.
Belhaj’s case is against Jack Straw, who was Britain’s foreign minister in 2004, and Mark Allen, who was a senior MI6 counter-terrorism officer at the time, according to lawyers in the case.
Sapna Malik from the law firm Leigh Day said: “We hope that the defendants in this action now see fit to apologise to our clients and acknowledge the wrongs done so that they may turn the page on this wretched chapter of their lives and move on”.
Straw responded to the ruling in a statement saying: “As foreign secretary I acted at all times in a manner which was fully consistent with my legal duties, and with national and international law.
“I was never in any complicit in the unlawful rendition or detention of anyone by other states,” Straw said.
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Guess Enda will be preparing his resignation speech.
Nice news to wake up to. :-D
Merkel will have a job for him lined up already like Hogan…
If only we had some kind of electronic voting system that be good.. Oh wait
There’s an #Eircode for that!.. Oh wait
Get ready for a November election
Canvassing will be starting again on monday.
Why is it people with strong political attachments are allowed to be part of the count? What’s the criteria for selection?
What do you mean part of the count? The counting is done by public servants as far as I know. Each candidate is allowed a certain number of observers, which is only right, but they observe the counting, they don’t do it.
What happens now? We all give thanks that the bloody politicking is over for now.
No think we have to endure it at least one more time with another general election
How do people get selected for these election jobs. In my village there were at least six people working when it seemed to me that two would have been suffice .I didn’t know any of them
In that photo the one in the green top still has a polling station pencil in her hand lol.
have your say