Met inquiry into police failure to give evidence at abuse trial

METROPOLITAN Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson has demanded an urgent independent inquiry into why officers who arrested a terror suspect refused to give evidence to a High Court hearing into allegations of abuse.

His force will pay Babar Ahmad £60,000 damages after admitting in the High Court that officers who arrested the 34-year-old IT support analyst subjected him to assault and religious abuse during the arrest at his home in Fountain Road, Tooting, in December 2003.

The Commissioner's calls follow the collapse of the police defence to a civil action for personal injury damages brought by Mr Ahmad. Scotland Yard today said in a statement: "The Commissioner has demanded an immediate investigation [by the Independent Police Complaints Commission] into the circumstances surrounding the officers' refusing to give evidence relating to this arrest."

Mr Ahmad was never charged with any offence but in August 2004 he was detained at the request of the US government and has been in Long Lartin prison since. Mr Ahmad said he was pleased the police had accepted that its officers subjected him to physical abuse and added: "This abuse took place not in Guantanamo Bay or a secret torture chamber but in Tooting."

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