BEWARE THE GIFT OF POISON FRUIT from these States did much more than simply use torture-tainted information. In cooperating with those States which torture, in some cases governments have appeared complicit in the acts of torture themselves. For instance, when Bisher Amin Al-Rawi and Jamil el-Banna travelled to Gambia from the UK in 2002, the British Security Services, MI5, sent a warning to foreign agencies, labelling the men Islamic extremists. On arrival, the men were detained, interrogated in conditions which may amount to torture, and sent to Guantanamo Bay, where they languished for several years. 5 Both men were released without charge in 2007. An inquiry which promised to look at whether Britain was implicated in the improper treatment of detainees held by other States was commenced in the UK in July 2010. However, doubts were raised over the inquiry’s independence and impartiality by several human rights organisations. After parallel criminal investigations were announced in 2012, the inquiry was concluded. In December 2013, a report summarising the preparatory work of The Detainee Inquiry raised several important questions about how British executive agencies co-operate with States that regularly torture.6 The report highlights particular themes and issues that would merit more investigation. It is not clear when, if ever, such an investigation will be undertaken.7 In the case A and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department (N°2), the UK House of Lords famously found that using information tainted by torture for executive purposes was not illegal. 8 After the ruling, Charles Clarke, then Home Secretary declared that “[the court] had held it was perfectly lawful for such information to be relied on operationally, and also by the Home Secretary in making executive decisions… This welcome decision will not change the government’s current practices, but it will provide greater legal authority.” 9 5 6 7 8 9 10 C. Whitlock, ‘Courted as Spies, Held as Combatants’, Washington Post Foreign Service, 2 April 2006, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ article/2006/04/01/AR2006040101465.html. See https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/report-of-the-detainee-inquiry. See ‘United Kingdom: UN experts on torture and counter-terrorism express concern over proposed official inquiry’, in press release dated 23 December 2013. UK House of Lords, A and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2005] UKHL 71. C. Clarke, ‘I welcome the ban on evidence gained through torture’, The Guardian, 13 December 2005.