Rangzieb Ahmed starts his civil action against MI5, MI6, Sec of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, Sec of State for Home Department, the Attorney General and the Chief Constable of the Greater Manchester Police, today. Anne Whyte QC represents the Greater Manchester Police.
The Claimant, Rangzieb Ahmed was the first person to be convicted of directing a terrorist Organisation (Al-Qaeda). He was tried in Manchester in 2008 and was convicted of this and other related terrorist offences.
His appeal to the Court of Appeal was dismissed in 2011. Prior to his trial he contended, unsuccessfully, that it would be unfair to try him because he alleged that various limbs of the British government including the Greater Manchester Police had been complicit in his arrest, unlawful detention, torture in Pakistan 2007/2007 and in what he alleged was his subsequent unlawful deportation to the UK.
He seeks civil damages from 6 defendants (MI5, MI6, Sec of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, Sec of State for Home Department, the Attorney General and the Chief Constable of the Greater Manchester Police), with Anne representing the Greater Manchester Police. His claims are brought for false imprisonment, assault and battery, misfeasance in public office and negligence on the basis that each defendant colluded with the Pakistani authorities and were complicit in the treatment he received at the hands of the Pakistani authorities.
The defendants have applied to strike out his claims as an abuse of process on the basis that they amount to a collateral attack on his convictions. The court will hear legal argument in open court and in closed proceedings owing to the sensitive nature of some of the relevant material.
The case has been heavily reported in the press throughout its path through the legal system.
BBC: here.
Times: here.
Anne Whyte KC