'UK handed over terror suspect in hands of Gaddafi torturers'

Tripoli, Sept 5 (ANI): Britain helped send a terror suspect into the bloody hands of fallen Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, a secret letter found in an abandoned Libyan government building has reveled.

The Daily Mail quoted the letter, as saying that MI6 provided intelligence, which led to the 'rendition' of a Libyan dissident who was then tortured horrifically.

Abdel Hakim Belhadj, who is now a senior military commander in the rebel army, has claimed that British agents were among the first to question him in Tripoli, adding that he was very "surprised that the British got involved in what was a very painful period in my life."

"I wasn't allowed a bath for three years and I didn't see the sun for one year. They hung me from the wall and kept me in an isolation cell. I was regularly tortured," the paper quoted Belhadj, as saying.

The author's views in the letter shows the kind of close relationship between British spies shared with senior figures in the Gaddafi regime.

"This was the least we could do for you and for Libya to demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built over recent years," he wrote.

The letter was among hundreds of documents found abandoned by campaign group Human Rights Watch on Friday in the offices formerly occupied by Musa Kusa as head of the Libyan foreign ministry.

It was reported earlier this week that secret documents found Gaddafi's abandoned office revealed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) shared a close relation with the Libyan intelligence service. The report had also claimed that Americans sent terrorism suspects at least eight times for questioning in Libya despite the country's reputation for torture.

Although it has been known that Western intelligence services began cooperating with Libya after it abandoned its program to build unconventional weapons in 2004, the left over files reveal that the cooperation between both the countries were much intense than earlier thought.

A C.I.A. spokeswoman, however declined to comment on the documents, but only added: "It can't come as a surprise that the Central Intelligence Agency works with foreign governments to help protect our country from terrorism and other deadly threats." (ANI)