Terror assault police officers to join Babar Ahmad in jail?

A group of police officers accused of attacking former employee of Imperial College and terrorist suspect Babar Ahmad appeared in court last month. Police Constables Mark Jones, 43, Roderick James-Bowen, 40, Nigel Cowley, 33, and Detective Constable John Donohue, 36, appeared at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court, intending to plead not guilty. The case has been committed to Southwark Crown Court for October 29th.

Mr. Ahmad, 35, worked full-time as an ICT Support Analyst supporting both undergraduates and postgraduates until he was arrested on December 2nd 2003. He was accused of using websites and e-mail in order to raise money to support terrorism in both Chechnya and Afghanistan amongst other allegations relating to handling US naval documents. Following a pre-dawn raid in Tooting by anti-terrorist officers, he was left with over 70 physical injuries.

He was subsequently released six days later but in August 2004 was re-arrested under the controversial 2003 US-UK Extradition Treaty. He has been held in custody ever since without charge.Despite vehement pleas from Mr. Ahmad to either charge or release him, alongside those who claim that some of the evidence that forms the basis of the case is unsatisfactory, the US government remains determined to see Mr. Ahmad stand trial in their own country.

In March 2009, Mr. Ahmad was awarded £60,000 compensation following the admission of the anti-terrorist police that, in the process of his arrest in 2003, they subjected him to “grave abuse, tantamount to torture”.

The latest news of the ongoing court case is unlikely to come as any consolation to Mr. Ahmad. While his extradition to the US has been halted by the European Court of Human Rights, he remains in custody at Long Lartin Prison in Worcestershire. In an interview with The Independent he labelled his 6 years of imprisonment without charge or conviction as “the equivalent of a 12-year sentence”.