Exclusive – Woolwich suspect tortured “at behest of British intelligence”, Parliamentary Intelligence Committee is told: Police’s arrest of witness claiming Woolwich attacker was radicalised by torture, sexual abuse and harassment was “ordered by MI5”

A copy of this letter was obtained by this author today, photographs of which are posted at the end of this report, which also contains an exclusive interview with Ibrahim Hassan’s lawyer with previously unknown details of Adebolajo’s alleged ordeal.Addressed to chairman of the committee Sir Malcolm Rifkind, and prepared with the assistance of his solicitors, Hassan’s letter insists on his innocence of involvement in terrorism activities, and his condemnation of Adebolajo’s “shocking acts.” Arguing that it is in “the public interest that everything that can be done to prevent such atrocities in the future should be the government’s top priority”, Hassan says that he believes “two fundamental factors” explain this behaviour:

“… the first factor was the systematic torture and sexual abuse he was subjected to by Kenyan troops which he believed was at the behest of British intelligence. Michael was told by his captors that this action by them was at the behest of UK authorities. He could not forget or forgive them for this connivance in this brutal treatment of him, when all he was trying to do was build a new life for himself outside of the UK.”

“at a hearing video link on the 26th May 2013 with Westminster Magistrates Court where the police sought permission from the court to extend my time in custody, my barrister asked if my arrest was ordered by the intelligence services [and] the police refused to deny this possibility.”