Government rejects inquiry into Britain's involvement in torture

London, Aug. 11 (ANI): The British Government has said that an inquiry into whether Britain's intelligence services have been involved indirectly in the torture of terrorist suspects by foreign agencies is not necessary.

The decision follows after the head of MI6, Sir John Scarlett, publicly insisted that none of his intelligence officers could be accused of complicit involvement in torture.

"Our officers are as committed to the values and the human rights values of liberal democracy as anybody else. They also have the responsibility of protecting the country against terrorism and these issues need to be debated and understood in that context," The Times quoted Scarlett, as saying.

The Metropolitan Police are examining whether MI5, MI6's sister service, was also guilty of wrongdoing by sending questions to the CIA to be asked of Binyam Mohamed, a British resident.

Mohamed has alleged that he was tortured by CIA while being held in Morocco. While, MI5 has said that it did not know where Mohamed was detained.

Earlier, Amnesty International had urged the Government to hold an inquiry into concerns that British intelligence officers knew about mistreatment of terrorist detainees.

"Any hint that the UK may be content to accept information that may be fresh from the torture chamber is very dangerous. It may be taken as tacit acceptance of torture and give a green light for the infliction of yet more pain and torture," a spokeswoman had said. (ANI)