Briton tortured into confessing bomb plot -lawyer

LONDON, Nov 21 (Reuters) A British Muslim falsely confessed to planning to bomb several high-profile English landmarks after being tortured and subjected to degrading conditions in Pakistan, his defence lawyer said today.

Salahuddin Amin, 31, was subjected to ''inhumane'' treatment by the Pakistani Intelligence Service (ISI) during 10 months of incarceration, Patrick O'Connor told a London court.

The torture took place with the knowledge of British intelligence agencies although no British agents were actually involved or witnessed it, he said.

Amin is one of seven British Muslims accused of planning to make explosives out of ammonium nitrate fertiliser to bomb pubs, clubs, trains, a shopping centre and synagogues.

O'Connor said Amin, who also holds Pakistani nationality, had been deprived of all ''basic human rights'' while in custody in Pakistan in 2004.

Such treatment had caused Amin to make confessions, which were not detailed in court, to British police on his arrest in February last year on arriving back in London, he added.

''His confessions in London were untrue. They were largely a repetition of what he had been facing (and) confessed in Pakistan during these 10 months,'' O'Connor said.

''The practices of the ISI are so notorious. The idea that they (British intelligence) did not know in general terms the practices of the ISI and what was likely to happen to Mr Amin ... is regarded as risible.'' Prosecutors accuse Amin of sending emails detailing the plot with a formula on how to make explosives from fertiliser to another of the suspects, Omar Khyam. O'Connor said Amin denied the claim.

''No one seems to be able to produce it (the emails) formally,'' he told the court.

He said if Amin's confessions were not true, prosecutors would have to rely on evidence from Mohammed Babar, a Pakistan-born, U.S.

supergrass who has admitted terrorism-related offences in New York.

Babar said earlier in the trial he had met some of the defendants at terrorism training camps in Pakistan.

Amin, Khyam, his younger brother Shujah Mahmood, 18, Anthony Garcia, 27, Nabeel Hussain, 20, Jawad Akbar, 22, and Waheed Mahmood, 33, deny conspiring to cause an explosion likely to endanger life.

Khyam, Garcia and Hussain are also charged with possessing 600 kg of ammonium nitrate fertiliser for terrorism purposes and Khyam and Mahmood also deny having aluminium powder -- an ingredient in explosives.

REUTERS SP KP2154