AI press release: UK secret proceedings deport people to Algeria despite the risk of torture

Amnistía Internacional publicou hoxe unha nota de prensa denunciando os procesos xudiciais secretos que se levan a cabo no Reino Unido para executar, por motivos de “seguridade nacional”, a deportación a Alxeria dalgunhas persoas. As autoridades británicas defenden tal medida alegando que o Goberno de Alxeria se comprometeu, mediante “garantías diplomáticas”, a non torturar nin maltratar a estas persoas. O lamentable é que as “garantías diplomáticas” non son xuridicamente vinculantes e foron ignoradas en situacións análogas por moitos Estados, sen olvidar que Alxeria ten un historial terrible de violacións dos Direitos Humanos…

A nota de prensa leva por título “United Kingdom: Secret judicial proceedings again expose individuals to risk of torture or ill-treatment on return to Algeria”. Copio e pego un extracto (a negrita é miña):

On 2 November the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) gave its decision in three important test cases concerning the UK’s attempts to deport people to Algeria on “national security” grounds. In all three cases the SIAC re-affirmed its earlier decision that the men could safely and lawfully be returned to Algeria, because it considered that diplomatic assurances obtained by the UK from the Algerian authorities would sufficiently reduce the real risk of serious human rights violations, including torture or other ill-treatment, which the men would face on return.

Amnesty International is deeply disturbed by the SIAC’s decision. The organization considers that assurances obtained from Algerian government officials in fact offer no such protection, and are intrinsically unreliable. Furthermore neither the men themselves nor the authorities in the UK have any effective way of enforcing these promises. Such promises are not worth the paper they are written on, particularly since Algeria has repeatedly been found to have breached its binding international legal obligations to prevent torture or other ill-treatment. Amnesty International is therefore gravely concerned that each of these men will be exposed to a real risk of serious human rights violations, including torture or other ill-treatment, if they are returned to Algeria, notwithstanding any assurances given to the contrary.

Amnesty International considers it deeply unfair that decisions that may have a devastating impact on the lives and safety of these men have been taken in secret. The judicial process in the UK, which has sanctioned reliance on such assurances, has denied the men an effective opportunity to challenge the assertion that it would be safe to return them to Algeria. The judicial proceedings against the men, which have involved the use of secret information in secret proceedings, have made a mockery of the right to due process and the principle that justice should not only be done, but be seen to be done. Judicial secrecy over matters of such importance gravely undermines the rule of law.

The three men are Mustapha Taleb, formerly referred to in judicial proceedings as “Y”; a man referred to as “U”; and another man referred to as “BB”. Each of the men has consistently denied involvement in terrorism or other activities that may be a risk to “national security”.

The SIAC had originally upheld the Secretary of State’s assessment both that the men constituted a risk to “national security”, and that they could safely be returned to Algeria. It did so, in part, on the basis of material which was kept secret from the men, and from their lawyers. [...]