British support for drones in Pakistan may include war crimes: Report
The high court is hearing legal challenge filed by Pakistani man whose father was killed in a drone strike.
The British High Court heard that the British government’s support for US drone strikes in Pakistan may involve acts of assisting murder or even war crimes, reported Guardian on Tuesday.
The UK court was hearing a legal challenged filed by a Pakistani man Noor Khan, whose father was killed by a drone strike. Khan's lawyers want to have the sharing of IS locational intelligence with the CIA declared unlawful, the Guardian report said.
The court said that media reports suggested that the signals intelligence agency GCHQ passes information in support of CIA drone operations in Pakistan, even though the UK government has declined to comment on it.
Khan’s lawyer Martin Chamberlain said a newspaper article in 2010 reported that GCHQ was using telephone intercepts to provide the US authorities with locational intelligence on leading militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
According to the report, the lawyer maintained that any GHCQ official who passed information to the CIA on drone strikes would be committing a serious criminal offence.
Foreign secretary’s lawyers said that they will neither confirm nor deny any intelligence-sharing activities as it would be “prejudicial to the national interest”.
The UK court was hearing a legal challenged filed by a Pakistani man Noor Khan, whose father was killed by a drone strike. Khan's lawyers want to have the sharing of IS locational intelligence with the CIA declared unlawful, the Guardian report said.
The court said that media reports suggested that the signals intelligence agency GCHQ passes information in support of CIA drone operations in Pakistan, even though the UK government has declined to comment on it.
Khan’s lawyer Martin Chamberlain said a newspaper article in 2010 reported that GCHQ was using telephone intercepts to provide the US authorities with locational intelligence on leading militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
According to the report, the lawyer maintained that any GHCQ official who passed information to the CIA on drone strikes would be committing a serious criminal offence.
Foreign secretary’s lawyers said that they will neither confirm nor deny any intelligence-sharing activities as it would be “prejudicial to the national interest”.