I was “never ever complicit” in illegal rendition or torture, says Jack Straw

Jack Straw has condemned the use of torture and denied being complicit in the torture of suspected terrorists, following the publication of a report in America concerning the CIA’s use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” (EITs). Straw was Labour’s Foreign Secretary from 2001 to 2006, during the foremost years of the “War on Terror” and the UK’s military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Questions have been raised concerning what members of the British government knew about the use of EITs, but Straw says he acted within the law that ensures people’s human rights are observed. He said:

“As I’ve made repeatedly clear, I applied myself assiduously to the legal obligations on me, which above all were to ensure that people’s human rights were observed and that any action I took was within the law.

“I was never, ever complicit in people being rendered illegally – still less in their bad treatment or their torture.”

Straw, who is standing down from Parliament at the election, said he would be happy to give evidence to an inquiry looking into the UK’s treatment of detainees during his time in office, and condemned the CIA’s actions revealed in the report as “wrong, full stop”.