Babar Ahmad

For the British writer/director see Babar Ahmed.

Babar Ahmad, born in London, England in 1974, is the longest detained-without-trial British citizen held as part of the ‘war on terror’, having been imprisoned in the UK since August 2004. He has never been convicted of any criminal offence, but is held fighting extradition to the United States on allegations of involvement in websites supporting Chechen and Afghan insurgents.

In March 2009, he was awarded £60,000 compensation at the High Court in London after an admission by UK anti-terrorist police that they subjected him to ‘grave abuse, tantamount to torture’ during his first arrest in December 2003.

He also appeared in the media in February 2008, when it was discovered that his conversations with Sadiq Khan MP had been monitored by the police during prison visits. An investigation of the monitoring found no impropriety.

He remains in prison awaiting the outcome of his final appeal against extradition at the European Court of Human Rights, which is expected to rule in early 2010.

Background

Babar Ahmad was born in London in May 1974, and grew up in Tooting, South West London. His parents migrated to England from Pakistan in the early 1960s. His father is a retired civil servant and his mother a retired science teacher.

He went to a public school where he won academic prizes and obtained GCSEs and A-Levels. He then went to university and obtained a Master’s degree in Engineering from the University of London. Before his imprisonment in August 2004, he was working in the IT department at Imperial College London.

According to Mr. Sadiq Khan MP of the House of Commons, Ahmad "is known locally in Tooting as a caring and helpful member of our community".

US prosecution of Ahmad and others

Babar Ahmad was arrested in London on 5 August 2004 on charges that of providing material support to terrorism, providing illegal support to the Taliban, money laundering and conspiring to kill people. An affidavit filed with the US court details that Ahmad used aliases to operate Azzam.com, a website supporting Chechen and Taliban fighters. It further describes that recovered from a house used by Ahmad were his possessions, including a British Airways Executive Club card in his name and next to it a floppy disk containing a password-protected document containing a detailed description of the US Fifth Fleet, its ships, the date and time of its expected passage through the Straits of Hormuz, and that it was vulnerable to attack by "RPG" (rocket-propelled grenade). Ahmad was later indicted by a grand jury of US citizens in October 2004. Another man Syed Talah Ahsan, was indicted in 2006 of involvement with Ahmad and with the battlegroup information in the document, and thereafter a US former navy seaman, Abu Jihad was indicted and convicted of passing this information to them.

Under the Extradition Act 2003, the US does not have to provide any evidence before seeking the extradition of a British citizen.

US extradition documents state that ‘at all times material to the indictment’ Babar Ahmad was resident in London, UK. However, the UK Crown Prosecution Service declared in July 2004 and December 2006, as did the UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith in September 2006, that there was ‘insufficient evidence’ to charge Babar Ahmad with any criminal offence under UK law.

Having been refused bail, Babar Ahmad was detained in prison, where he remains. On 17 May 2005, Senior District Judge Timothy Workman approved his extradition at Bow Street Magistrates Court, stating, ‘This is a troubling and difficult case. The defendant is a British citizen who is alleged to have committed offences which, if the evidence were available, could have been prosecuted in this country...’

In September 2005, Sadiq Khan MP, Member of Parliament for Tooting, presented a petition of 18,000 signatures of then Home Secretary Charles Clarke asking Babar Ahmad to be tried in the UK, instead of being extradited. On 16 November 2005, Charles Clarke approved his extradition to the US.

On 28 November 2005, the UK Parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee raised serious concerns about the one-sided UK-US extradition arrangements and, in particular, the case of Babar Ahmad. In a House of Commons emergency debate on 12 July 2006 about UK-US extradition, several MPs from all parties raised concerns at the case of Babar Ahmad. His name has also been mentioned repeatedly in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords in relation to UK-US extradition. Thousands have attended demonstrations in support of him.

On 30 November 2006, he lost his appeal at the High Court. On 4 June 2007, the House of Lords refused to grant him leave to appeal to them.

On 10 June 2007, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (France) ordered the UK Government to freeze Babar Ahmad’s extradition until they had fully determined his final appeal. This order remains in place as of December 2009. The European Court of Human Rights is expected to deliver judgement in the case in early 2010.

Police abuse case

Babar Ahmad was first arrested at his Tooting home on 2 December 2003 by UK anti-terrorist police of 1 Unit 1 Area Territorial Support Group based at the high security Paddington Green Police Station. By the time he arrived in the custody suite of the police station, he had sustained at least 73 injuries, all later documented by both police and independent doctors, as well as in photographic and video evidence.

He filed a formal complaint that was supervised by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). He complained that officers had beaten him with fists and knees, stamped on his bare feet with boots, rubbed metal handcuffs on his forearm bones, sexually abused him, mocked the Islamic faith by placing him into the Muslim prayer position and taunting, ‘Where is your God now?!’, and applied life-threatening neck holds to him until he felt he was about to die.

On 10 September 2004, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced that there was ‘insufficient evidence’ to prosecute any of the police officers involved in the attack. However, on 17 January 2005 the IPCC declared that PC Roderick James-Bowen (born 1971) would face internal police disciplinary procedures over the assault.

On 13 April 2005 PC James-Bowen was cleared at a Police Misconduct Tribunal held at Woolwich Crown Court. Metropolitan Police Commander Andre Baker, the President of the Tribunal, stated that PC James-Bowen should be ‘commended, not castigated... for his great bravery’ in arresting Babar Ahmad.

On 18 March 2009, Babar Ahmad was awarded £60,000 compensation at the High Court in London after the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson admitted that he had been the victim of a ‘serious, gratuitous and prolonged attack.’

On 26 March 2009, Mayor of London Boris Johnson announced an inquiry into the Babar Ahmad case with external judicial oversight by retired judge Sir Geoffrey Grigson, to report back to the Metropolitan Police Authority.

On 3 November 2009, following his acquittal in a separate racial abuse trial, 42-year old PC Mark Jones of 1 Area TSG was named as being involved with the attack on Babar Ahmad. The Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, announced that he was taking the case ‘very seriously’ whilst considering whether to prosecute PC Jones and the other officers involved in the assault on Babar Ahmad.

In August 2010 it was announced that Police constables Nigel Cowley, John Donohue, Roderick James-Bowen and Mark Jones would be prosecuted for their part in the assault on Babar Ahmad.

Monitoring of MP visit to Ahmad

On 3 February 2008, the British newspaper The Sunday Times reported in 2008 that UK anti-terrorist police had covertly bugged prison visits between Babar Ahmad and his local MP, Sadiq Khan, Member of Parliament for Tooting. The bugged conversations took place at HM Prison Woodhill in May 2005 and June 2006.

This information was reportedly leaked to the press by Detective Constable Mark Kearney, the police intelligence officer who conducted the covert surveillance of the visits, in alleged contravention of the Wilson Doctrine that banned Government surveillance of politicians in 1966.

Following widespread international media coverage of the relevation, the previous Secretary of State for Justice, Jack Straw MP, announced in Parliament the day after the article was published that he had asked a retired High Court judge, Sir Christopher Rose, to conduct an official inquiry into the affair.

The Rose Inquiry reported back to the House of Commons later in February 2008, stating that the police had done nothing wrong, causing commentators to dismiss the report as a whitewash.

Notes and references

• Isolating terrorists; preserving justice - BBC News, last updated May 21, 2007.
• Former U.S. Navy sailor arrested on terror charges - CNN, March 8, 2007
• UK pair lose US extradition fight - BBC News, November 30, 2006
• Islamic group holds protest march - BBC News, December 10, 2005
• UK orders terror suspect extradition to U.S. - CNN, November 16, 2005
• Briton charged in terror conspiracy - CNN, October 7, 2004
• Terror suspect 'can be extradited' - CNN, May 17, 2004
• Terror suspect remains in custody - CNN, August 16, 2004
• Father defends terror suspect son - BBC News, August 8, 2004
• Terror suspect 'had Navy plans' - CNN, August 6, 2004

External links

• Official Support website
• Three Years In Captivity by Babar Ahmad
• Caged Prisoners entry for Babar Ahmad - Ahmad's poems, letters, articles, etc.
• http://www.wandsworthguardian.co.uk/news/4737002._Cops_should_face_criminal_charges_following_Tooting_man_s_assault_/
• http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6901957.ece
• http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article5934380.ece