Torture claims probe: Reaction

Scotland Yard is to investigate claims that an MI5 officer was complicit in the torture of ex-Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed, it has been announced.

"I have always made clear that when serious allegations are made they have got to be investigated.

"I have also been clear that this government does not tolerate or endorse torture.

"This is a matter that has been looked at by the attorney general and has been referred to the police for investigation.

"Once the case is passed by the attorney general to the police it is for them to investigate the matter independent of any political process.

"I want to stand up for our security services because they cannot stand up for themselves.

"Our security services, in a period where terrorism has risen, where the threat of terrorism is very great, have done an amazing and courageous job."

"I have to defer to the judgement of the attorney general. She's had an opportunity to look at these documents along with the director of public prosecutions.

"The allegations made by Binyam Mohamed are extremely serious and the fact that he himself may have misbehaved does not justify his being tortured and certainly does not justify our colluding in torture.

"So if she has come to the conclusion having looked at the material that there's a reasonable suspicion that an offence might have been committed then she's absolutely right to ask the Metropolitan Police to investigate.

"Clearly I think there is still a need for an independent judicial investigation because that goes further than Binyam Mohamed's claims.

"It goes to the entire issue of the involvement of the British security services with the activities of others who may have committed torture not just on him but on other people as well.

"But I do accept that if there is to be a police inquiry it would be harder for a judicial investigation to get under way."

"After months of delay, the attorney general has at last made a clear decision.

"These are incredibly serious allegations of complicity in barbaric acts of torture and breaches of international law.

"There must be complete faith in the way the investigation is carried out if the public's trust, and Britain's standing in the world, is ever to be restored.

"It is now absolutely vital that government officials, politicians and intelligence agencies co-operate fully with this unprecedented investigation.

"However, the wider question of the government's policy on rendition and torture throughout the Bush and Blair years will remain unanswered by this investigation.

"Only a fully independent judicial inquiry can get to the bottom of this."

"Referring Binyam Mohamed's case to the police is the right thing to do, but it should be just the first step.

"We also need a separate independent inquiry into allegations from Binyam Mohamed and others that the UK colluded in their torture, rendition, illegal detention and other human right abuses.

"What we must not lose sight of here is that Binyam Mohamed's is far from being the only case where there are serious allegations that the UK colluded in the mistreatment or illegal detention of people from this country and elsewhere.

"We still need an independent inquiry with the powers to unearth any wrongdoing by UK officials during the 'war on terror'."

"It's fantastic news. I've spent several days with Binyam since his return and he's clearly suffered a terrible ordeal and some of the things are unmentionable what he's suffered.

"And I've maintained, and many of the other British citizens who were held by the Americans and questioned directly by MI5, we've been saying this for so many years now... that the MI5 were present at every leg of my journey during my extraordinary rendition, that included in Afghanistan, in Pakistan and Guantanamo Bay."

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