Bluewater bomb plot terrorist sues Government over torture claims

An Al Qaeda terrorist serving a life sentence for his part in planning a fertiliser bomb attack on mainland Britain is suing security services and the Government for up to £50,000 over claims he was tortured in Pakistan.

Salahuddin Amin, 34, from Luton, Bedfordshire, has issued a High Court writ against MI5 chief Jonathan Evans, the incoming head of MI6 Sir John Sawers, the Home Office, the Foreign Office and Attorney General Baroness Scotland.

He is expected to receive thousands of pounds in legal aid, although his lawyers say they will work for nothing on a substantial part of his case.

After a 12-month trial, Amin was convicted in 2007, along with four other men, of planning to bomb the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, the Ministry of Sound nightclub in Central London, the gas or electricity network and Parliament during Prime Minister’s Questions.

The group, some of whom met two of the July 7 London suicide bombers, had bought 1,300lb of ammonium nitrate fertiliser from an agricultural merchant to prepare for their attacks. Amin was said to have provided the terrorists with a formula to make the bombs.

Now he claims that after fleeing to Pakistan in 2004 he surrendered to the Pakistani Secret Intelligence Service who he says repeatedly tortured him, forcing him to give false confessions before he was deported back to Britain.

He alleges MI5 and other sections of the UK Government turned a blind eye and, possibly, instigated his torture, which he claims included being whipped, suspended by his wrists from the ceiling and being threatened with a drill.

MI5 does not deny questioning Amin several times during his detention in Pakistan. Under the 1988 Criminal Justice Act, it is an offence for British officials to instigate or consent to the inflicting of ‘severe pain or suffering’ on anyone, anywhere in the world, or to agree to such treatment.

At his trial the judge, Sir Michael Astill, accepted Amin had been mistreated but said he believed
the claims had been exaggerated. Sir Michael added that the men, who are all British citizens, had ‘betrayed their country’.

Amin was born in London, moving to Pakistan aged four. He gained a degree in product design engineering but became radicalised and spent time at the controversial Finsbury Park Mosque in North London, where he met hook-handed terrorist Abu Hamza.

The case – one of 15 in which British agents have been accused of complicity in torture – has been assigned to High Court procedural judge Master Leslie.

He will hear initial details of the action before deciding how and when it should proceed.
Amin has paid a High Court fee of £760 to issue his writ. This is split between a £360 fee for a cash claim of between £15,000 and £50,000 and £400 for a non-financial claim, usually an injunction.

Tayab Ali, one of Amin’s legal team, said last night: ‘This case is not about money. What we are looking for is to hold the people who are guilty of being complicit in this torture to be accountable for their actions.’

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘There is not a shred of evidence to support these allegations. We utterly refute them and we will robustly defend ourselves in court.