(MENAFN) Britain's MI6 spy agency will be placed under an unprecedented and unwelcome spotlight on Tuesday for the rendition of Libyan dissidents to Tripoli, where they were subsequently tortured by Muammar Gaddafi's secret police.
In detail, the Supreme Court in London will rule on whether the family of Abdel Hakim Belhaj can sue a former senior MI6 officer, Mark Allen, and former foreign secretary, Jack Straw, for their role in the affair. The abductions in 2004 came at a time when the government of UK prime minister Tony Blair was seeking closer ties to the Libyan dictator in its search for commercial deals, notably oil.
Then foreign secretary Jack Straw told Parliament a year after the abduction of Belhaj that there was "simply no truth" to claims that Britain was involved in rendition.
MI6's role in the secret rendition was revealed in extraordinary circumstances. In 2011, Nato air strikes destroyed the offices of Gaddafi"s intelligence chief, Moussa Koussa. Among the scattered documents discovered by journalists was a letter Allen wrote to Moussa on 18 March 2004.
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