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Since the Dec. 15 parliamenta..., 2005-12-28 15:15:47 | Main | Noting an uptick in coverage o..., 2006-01-11 12:30:24 Craig Murray, the former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, cites this memo as evidence that the Blair government approved the use by intelligence services of information extracted through torture, arguing that this does not constitute a violation of the UN Convention Against Torture and that it merely wouldn't be permissable as evidence during a trial under UK law: From: Michael Wood, Legal Advisor Date: 13 March 2003 CC: PS/PUS; Matthew Kidd, WLD Linda Duffield UZBEKISTAN: INTELLIGENCE POSSIBLY OBTAINED UNDER TORTURE 1. Your record of our meeting with HMA Tashkent recorded that Craig had said that his understanding was that it was also an offence under the UN Convention on Torture to receive or possess information under torture. I said that I did not believe that this was the case, but undertook to re-read the Convention. 2. I have done so. There is nothing in the Convention to this effect. The nearest thing is article 15 which provides: "Each State Party shall ensure that any statement which is established to have been made as a result of torture shall not be invoked as evidence in any proceedings, except against a person accused of torture as evidence that the statement was made." 3. This does not create any offence. I would expect that under UK law any statement established to have been made as a result of torture would not be admissible as evidence. [signed] M C Wood Legal Adviser Nothing wrong with torture at all in the UN Convention Against Torture! Along with his own memos to his superiors he has been ordered by the Foreign Office to remove all citations of these documents in his own statements and to return all copies of them, in effect ordering him to whitewash the complicity of his own government in the criminal behavior of my own and the brutal violations of basic human rights in Uzbekistan. The UK: a real beachhead of liberty. :: posted by buermann @ 2005-12-29 12:26:15 CST | link go ahead, express that vague notion Name: Email: Homepage: Comment your turing test: