A British civil rights group has threatened to sue Britain and Portugal if they did not divulge relevant information on the secret transfer of detainees to the US camp at Guantanamo. "I wrote a letter to the British government asking them to give out any evidence they have, and we know they do, that can help our defence," said lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, the founder of Reprieve. "If they donÂ’t answer within one week, we will sue the (British) government," he warned.| "There are two ways of making the Portuguese government cooperate: the nice way and the not so nice way. The not so nice way is to sue them and make them do it." |
Citing Portuguese and US data as well as prisoner testimony, Reprieve earlier this year released a report stating that 728 prisoners at the notorious US detention camp on Cuba had been transported through Portuguese jurisdiction. Portugal denied these claims. "There is zero doubt that the Portuguese government was complacent with the rendering of prisoners," said Stafford Smith.
He was scheduled to meet a state attorney investigating the question of the secret transfer of prisoners. "There are many examples of people who apparently were rendered through Portugal. We listed 10 of them in our report and they all potentially face the death penalty."