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Report of the Eminent Jurists Panel on terrorism, counter-terrorism and human rights
Elsewhere, the Panel heard concerns about cross-border intelligence cooperation
under the terms of the Shanghai Cooperation Agreement.191 Participants at the
Hearing in Moscow alleged that this Agreement has given rise to a range of extralegal activities by intelligence services in the Russian Federation and the five Central
Asian Republics (notably Uzbekistan). The Agreement gives immunity to the officials involved. The Agreement broadly sets out information sharing arrangements,
providing for undefined assistance in operational activities. It also provides that
information about assistance shall not be subject to disclosure, making it virtually
impossible to verify the scope of cooperation and to ensure accountability. The
Panel received information about increasing inter-action between intelligence agencies across the region resulting in the search, detention and subsequent transfer
of individuals to their countries of origin, to situations where they risked serious
human rights violations, and which, if substantiated, would therefore be a clear
violation of the non-refoulement principle. Some transfers have apparently followed
expedited extradition procedures; others followed kidnappings or disappearances
and extra-legal transfers. In some cases, suspects whose extradition had been
refused have shortly afterwards been abducted and transferred on questionable
immigration grounds.192
The concern about foreign intelligence or law enforcement officials interrogating
persons held by another State under conditions of arbitrary detention (including
prolonged incommunicado and secret detentions) was raised in Kenya. The Panel
heard allegations that intelligence personnel from Australia, UK and the US interviewed detainees held in secret detention by the Pakistani ISI, and that some
countries sent intelligence personnel to interview detainees who were held in US
custody in Guantánamo Bay.193
191 On June 7, 2002, the Member States in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization adopted the SCO Charter
and Agreement on the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS). The agreement sets out in broad
terms information sharing arrangements between security services and provides for undefined assistance
in operational activities. See EJP Russian Federation Hearing.
192 Abdugani Kamaliyev, expelled on 5 December 2007 to Uzbekistan despite interim measures by the
European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) forbidding his transfer: ECtHR, Statement of facts of 9 June 2008,
Communicated case Kamaliyev and Kamaliyeva v. Russia, Application No. 52812/07; ECtHR, Statement of
facts of 4 June 2008, Communicated case Iskandarov v. Russia, Application No. 171854/05; ECtHR, Judgment
of 11 December 2008, Muminov v. Russia, Application No. 42502/06, where the applicant was transferred
on foot of an expulsion order which, subsequent to his expulsion, was overturned by an appeal court. See
also written statement by Amnesty International, EJP Russian Federation Hearing. Information provided
by Civic Assistance Committee, “Agreements of the SCO as the ‘legal’ basis for the extradition of political
refugees”, August 2008 http://www.hro1.org/node/2933.
193 See on the questioning by Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and Australian Federal Police
(AFP) of an Australian citizen detained incommunicado by the Pakistani Intelligence Services (ISI), Victoria
Supreme Court, R. v. Thomas, 2006 VSCA 165. See also, the UK England and Wales High Court, R. (Binyan
Mohamed) v. Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, (2008) EWHC 2048 (Admin), 21
August 2008, which concluded that UK security services facilitated in various ways the questioning of Binyan
Mohamed in Pakistani and the United States detention, while being held incommunicado and subjected to
ill-treatment, and that the relationship between the UK Government and the US authorities was far beyond
that of a by-stander or witness to the alleged wrong doing. Also, Supreme Court of Canada, Canada v.
Khadr, 2008 SCC 28, 23 May 2008 concerning the questioning by Canadian Intelligence of a Canadian minor,
who remains detained in Guantánamo Bay and is charged before Military Commissions. See also written
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