MOSCOW, October 30 (RIA Novosti) — The UK's Court of Appeal has given the go-ahead for a claim by a Libyan dissident and his wife against the UK's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) for assisting the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to abduct them to Libya, the human rights group Reprieve said Thursday on its website.
"My wife and I are gratified by the judges' decision to give us our day in court. Our part of the 'deal in the desert' – the kidnap, the secret CIA jail, the torture chamber in Tripoli – is as fresh and as painful for us as if it happened yesterday," Abdul-Hakim Belhaj was quoted by Reprieve as saying.
The court made a decision to go ahead with the claim despite attempts by the UK government to hinder it, according to Reprieve.
"The stark reality is that unless the English courts are able to exercise jurisdiction in this case, these very grave allegations against the executive will never be subjected to judicial investigation," the court's judgment stated as quoted by Reprieve.
According to Reprieve, Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife Fatima Boudchar were abducted in Southeast Asia in 2004 and sent by British and US Intelligence agencies to Libya to face punishment and torture, reportedly because Abdul-Hakim Belhaj was one of the leaders of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which was against the Gaddafi regime. Earlier media reports stated that it all happened at a time when relations between Libya, Britain and the United States were particularly cordial due to Gaddafi giving up his nuclear weapons programs.
