On 18 March the High Court ordered the Metropolitan Police to pay £60,000 compensation to Babar Ahmad for a vicious beating meted out to him by eight armed members of the Territorial Support Group who arrested him under the Terrorism Act at his home in south London in December 2003.
Despite putting up no resistance to his arrest, he was repeatedly kicked and punched in the head and body, and his head was pushed against a window with such force that it shattered. His house was ransacked and items smashed. He was strip-searched in a humiliating manner and his religion insulted. His wife was handcuffed as she looked on in horror. Babar himself was then handcuffed with his arms twisted up his back, marched to a van, with police stamping on his bare feet, and taken to Charing Cross Police Station, with police strangling him on the way.
Following this ordeal, Babar was released from police custody a few days later but rearrested in 2004 on an extradition warrant from the US to face vague charges of ‘supporting terrorism’. Under an extradition deal signed by David Blunkett when Home Secretary, the US can demand extradition without having to make out a case that they would successfully be able to prosecute someone. Babar Ahmad is still in prison awaiting a judgement from the European Court of Human Rights on his extradition. He has not been charged with any crime under British law. As well as highlighting the brutality and thuggishness of the police, this case exposes the impotence and collusion of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). Babar complained to the IPCC immediately after the incident; it rejected most of his complaint, referring a narrow aspect of it back to an internal police tribunal which resulted in all-round exoneration and one officer being commended for his bravery!
FRFI 208 April / May 2009
