Officers charged with beating up terror suspect

FOUR British riot squad officers have been charged with beating up a Briton now awaiting extradition to the United States to face terrorism charges when they arrested him, prosecutors said yesterday.

Babar Ahmad, a 36-year-old computer expert, was detained in a dawn raid on his home in Tooting, south-west London, in December 2003.

“Mr Ahmad suffered a number of injuries during that arrest, including heavy bruising to the head, neck, wrists and feet,” said Simon Clements, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Special Crime Division.

“Our conclusion is that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to charge four of the officers involved in the arrest of Mr Ahmad with causing actual bodily harm to him.”

Before the raid, police had been told that Ahmad, a Muslim, was believed to be connected to al-Qaida, was the head of a south London terrorist group and was potentially very dangerous.

However, he was released after questioning by counter-terrorism detectives.

The Crown Prosecution Service initially rejected charging any officers involved, but last year Ahmad won £60,000 (€73,000) in damages from London’s Metropolitan Police.

Clements said the CPS had reviewed the case after that ruling and decided it could now take action against police constables Nigel Cowley, John Donohue, Roderick James-Bowen and Mark Jones from the Met’s Territorial Support Group.

They will appear in court on September 22.

Although he has never been charged with any offence in Britain, Ahmad was re-arrested in August 2004 after US officials accused him of running a website that raised funds for Islamist militants.

He has spent six years in custody and is awaiting a ruling on whether his extradition would contravene the European Convention on Human Rights.