http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1604436,00.html
Britain
May 09, 2005
I was tortured, says ricin plotter
By Reda Hassaine in Algiers and Sean O'Neill
Meguerba: told his family he had been repeatedly abused
AN INFORMANT who revealed an al-Qaeda plot to make and use deadly
ricin poison in Britain is claiming that he was tortured before
admitting his role in the conspiracy.
Mohammed Meguerba, 37, who trained in terrorist camps in Afghanistan,
was held in a secret detention centre for 17 months by the Algerian
intelligence service (DRS). His relatives have told The Times they
were unaware he had been held from December 2002 until he was moved to
Sakardji prison in Algiers last year.
When they visited him there, Mr Meguerba weighed 5st 7lb (35kg) and
told his family he had been repeatedly abused. "We did not know where
he was for such a long time and when we finally saw him he told us
that he had been badly tortured," one relative said.
The allegation that Mr Meguerba was tortured will bolster the asylum
claims of five Algerians cleared of involvement in the ricin plot.
Since their acquittals, the men have made fresh applications to remain
in Britain. The Algerians, and a Libyan man, were remanded into
immigration detention at the end of the Old Bailey case last month but
have since been freed on bail. They are not subject to terrorist
control orders.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has been in talks with Algeria
about drawing up an agreement under which Algerian citizens could be
returned there from Britain. But lawyers say that in the light of Mr
Meguerba's claims it will be impossible to deport any of the ricin
defendants despite them being cleared.
After his al-Qaeda training, Mr Meguerba arrived in London in March
2002 and went to Finsbury Park mosque. He began to work with Kamel
Bourgass to try to make crude poisons. In September 2002 Mr Meguerba
was arrested in London during an operation into suspected terrorist
fundraising. Released on bail he fled Britain and returned to Algeria,
where he was arrested.
His claims of torture have been supported by an Algerian man, now
living in Britain, who was detained in Algiers in January 2003 and
placed by his interrogators in a room with Mr Meguerba. The man has
stated that Mr Meguerba's face was bruised, cut and swollen.
Appearing in an Algiers court earlier this month, charged with
membership of a terrorist organisation, Mr Meguerba appeared frail,
and with many of his teeth missing.
The allegations of torture in Mr Meguerba's case illustrate the
dilemma facing Britain and other Western democracies in fighting the
war on terrorism. His "confession", presented as 27 pages of memos
written by DRS agents, led Scotland Yard to the flat in Wood Green,
North London, where Bourgass was trying to make ricin and other poisons.
Bourgass, 32, an illegal immigrant, was convicted of the poison plot
and is also serving life for the murder of Detective Constable Stephen
Oake in Manchester in January 2003.
The Meguerba memos were not relied on by the prosecution in the ricin
trial because they could have raised allegations of torture. One
source close to the case said: "The Government has introduced the
Human Rights Act but finds itself relying on regimes with appalling
human rights records for information." Algerian secret services denied
that Mr Meguerba had been abused. Mr Meguerba remains in custody and
the case against him, which contains no reference to the British ricin
plot, has been adjourned indefinitely.
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