Torture

I'm sure you'll have seen this already, but Craig Murray, former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, has been hassled by the Foreign Office to return a few documents in his possession relating to details of the UK's use of "evidence" obtained from torture in Uzbekistan. The particular embarrassment here is that Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has claimed that does not use "information" obtained through torture elsewhere.

You can see why any documents even whispering otherwise would cause some bother. Documentary evidence that the Britsh government was both aware of torture in Uzbeki jails, and considered evidence obtained through torture as legitimate, would be most unfortuante. Proof that, for example, the Uzbeki authorities boiled prisoners alive would be particularly unfortunate if there was even a hint that the UK government had relied on "information" obtained through such means.

Craig has taken the option of circulating documents which say that as widely as possible. The Independent has (partially) picked up on the story.