Libya Says It Won't Torture Deported Terror Suspects
By Kevin McCandless
CNSNews.info Correspondent
October 21, 2005

London (CNSNews.info) - With the announcement of a controversial deportation deal this week, human rights groups charged that the British government is putting too much faith in the promises of Libya.

On Monday, the British government said it had signed an agreement to send suspected Islamic extremists living in the United Kingdom back to their native Libya.

As part of the arrangement, Home Secretary Charles Clarke said that Libya agreed not to torture or execute those extremists.

Clarke said the agreement was necessary to continue the fight against international terrorism and to keep Britain safe.

After the announcement, Conservative Party MP David Davis applauded the agreement.

"It is important now that the government doesn't drag its heels in rounding up and deporting extremists," he told the BBC. "Preachers of hate who have no right to be here should be swiftly removed."

However, groups such as Amnesty International charged that Libya still routinely mistreats political prisoners and that any understanding reached with Libya was worthless.

Last night, Ashur Shamis, a longtime Libyan dissident living in England, said he was shocked at the agreement, which he doubted the government of Moammar Gadaffi would honor.

"It's difficult, if not impossible, to believe what they have to say," he said. "Their track record screams to the opposite."

Among the first suspects expected to be deported under the arrangement are five Libyan nationals detained as "threats to national security" two weeks ago.

According to newspaper reports, the men are members or former members of the Libyan
Islamic Fighting Group -- a group that recently was added to the British government's list of banned terrorist organizations.

Formed in the early 1990s by mujahedeen returning from Afghanistan, the group aims to overthrow Gadaffi and establish an Islamic state in Libya.

In 1995, allegedly funded in part by Osama bin Laden, Libyan Islamic Fighting Group led a large-scale revolt against the regime, but the revolt was crushed. The next year, the group reportedly attempted to assassinate Gadaffi but only ended up killing several of his bodyguards.

However, intelligence analysts have said that the group has never engaged in terrorist activities in the United Kingdom.

This week, the British government also denied reports that it was secretly negotiating with Libya over the fate of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, the one man convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

The New York-bound flight blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland, when plastic explosives were detonated in the cargo hold, killing 270 people.

Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer, was convicted in January 2001 of conspiring to carry out the crime, and he was sentenced to serve 27 years in a Scottish prison.

According to the Glasgow Herald, government insiders have said that British, American and Libyan officials have been in "secret talks" to transfer Megrahi back to Libya or to a neighboring African country.

Yesterday, a British foreign office spokesman said that he was not aware of any such talks.

"We don't know anything about that," said spokesman Dan Chugg. "Our position is still that anyone who has been convicted of that offense should serve out their sentence in Scotland."

Yesterday, Dan Cohen, whose daughter Theodora was killed in the Pan Am attack, said that none of the victims' families have been able to confirm the story independently.

However, he said that they were worried that neither the American nor the British government has condemned the idea.

"Nobody we know of in the government is saying this is an incredible story," he said. "They're just saying they don't know about it."

Yesterday, Ashur Shamis said he wouldn't have believed that such a deal was possible before this month. Still, he speculated that Britain might be willing to trade Megrahi for the man who murdered London policewoman Yvonne Fletcher in 1984.

Fletcher was shot by an unknown gunman from inside the Libyan embassy while helping to control a demonstration outside. After a 10-day-seige by police, all personnel within the building were allowed to return to Libya under diplomatic immunity.