APPG Chair Ken Clarke 'disappointed' at government delay on judge-led inquiry

Speaking today, APPG Chair Ken Clarke criticised the government's failure to meet its own 60-day deadline to announce whether or not it will hold a judge-led inquiry into the UK’s involvement in rendition and torture.

Ken Clarke said: “I am very disappointed to see that the government has failed to keep to its own 60-day deadline in response to my urgent question. I can only hope this means they are working to finalise details of the independent judge-led inquiry we need.

It is now over two months since the Intelligence and Security Committee’s reports were published, over four years since the Committee was first handed the inquiry, eight years since the Government gave a promise in Parliament for a full judge-led inquiry and over 13 years since press reports of UK involvement in rendition and torture first emerged. The details of UK involvement in torture and rendition that we know about already are shocking – such as the UK’s role in the rendition of Mr Belhaj and his pregnant wife Ms Boudchar to Gadaffi’s interrogators. Yet we still do not fully know what went wrong and why, nor who was responsible. The only question now is - what is the government waiting for?”

Read the full press release here.

Read the Guardian coverage of Ken Clarke's comments here.