The British police have been urged to arrest a former FBI agent who is accused of torturing a Qatari man at a US naval base.
5Pillars understands that several people have made police complaints about the presence of Ali Soufan, a US national, on British soil.
Soufan spoke at the House of Lords today at an event organised by the right-wing Henry Jackson Society. He is accused of being present, and perhaps overseeing, the torture of Ali al-Marri on US soil. Soufan denies the allegations.
Ali Soufan is the Chief Executive of The Soufan Group and Founder of The Soufan Center. He is a former FBI Supervisory Special Agent who investigated and supervised international terrorism cases, including the events surrounding 9/11.
Al-Marri was detained for six years at the Naval Consolidated Brig at Charleston, South Carolina, in solitary confinement. He is the only non-citizen known to have been held as an enemy combatant within the United since the September 11 attacks. In a plea bargain agreement, al-Marri pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation in 2009.
Advocacy group CAGE has called on the Director of Public Prosecutions to order Soufan’s arrest. A complaint has also been submitted citing over 35,000 pages of evidence about Soufan’s case. In addition, a public petition calling on the DPP to arrest Soufan has gained thousands of signatures.
Moazzam Begg, Outreach Director of CAGE, said: “It is now up to the DPP to live up to its obligations under international law and arrest Soufan to investigate the allegations made against him. People in power should no longer escape accountability – as has been illustrated in part by Theresa May’s apology to Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife, Fatima Boudchar.”
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“The Henry Jackson Society, have invited Soufan despite allegations of his complicity in torture which speaks volumes given that they are a known right-wing think tank responsible for advocating a deeply hostile approach to Muslims. The HJS boasts supporters and members who are known torture apologists, such as Douglas Murray.
“Soufan has marketed himself as an anti-torture advocate, but official logs recently released suggest otherwise. Any hesitancy to apprehend Soufan in line with the rule of law, will illustrate dire weaknesses and hypocrisy within the British justice system.”
CAGE has also written to Jeremy Corbyn because a Labour peer, Lord Harris of Haringey, hosted the event in Parliament today. They say this is against the values of the Labour Party and are seeking Corbyn’s views on the matter.
