LT Ariyawathi says her employers hammered the nails into her after she complained that her workload was too heavy

A Saudi couple tortured their Sri Lankan maid by hammering 24 nails into her hands, legs and forehead, after she complained of a too heavy workload, officials said today.

Nearly 2 million Sri Lankans sought employment overseas last year and around 1.4 million, mostly maids, were employed in the Middle East. Many have complained of physical abuse or harassment. LT Ariyawathi, a 49-year old mother of three, returned home on Friday after five months in Saudi Arabia.

Previously secret papers show true extent of involvement in abduction and torture following al-Qaida attacks of 2001

The true extent of the Labour government's involvement in the illegal abduction and torture of its own citizens after the al-Qaida attacks of September 2001 has been spelled out in stark detail with the disclosure during high court proceedings of a mass of highly classified documents.

Read more @ BBC News

MI5 knew that Binyam Mohamed, the former Guantanamo detainee, was being tortured by the CIA, a Court of Appeal judgment has revealed.

Evidence held by the Foreign Office, which had until now been kept secret, shows that the Security Service was aware that Mr Mohamed was deprived of sleep, "shackled" during interrogation and threatened with the idea that he might "disappear".

MI5 has also been accused of feeding questions to Mr Mohamed's interrogators, leading to accusations that it was “complicit” in his torture.

Read more @ The Telegraph

A member of the ruling family of the United Arab Emirates has been cleared of the torture of a business associate.

Lawyers for Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the president's brother, said the court ruled he had been drugged and so was "unaware of his actions".

The incident came to light when a videotape was circulated showing the violent beating, said to have taken place in 2004.

It was the first reported investigation of a UAE ruling family member.

His lawyer, Habib al-Mulla, said the ruling had "clarified Sheikh Issa's position that he was a victim of conspiracy" over the torture of Mohammed Shah Poor.

British soldiers who abused an Iraqi detainee who died in their custody were not just "a few bad apples", a public inquiry has been told.

There was "something rotten in the whole barrel", Rabinder Singh QC said.

Troops in Iraq routinely used banned interrogation methods they did not think were illegal, lawyers told the inquiry into the 2003 death.

The inquiry, led by Sir William Gage, is focusing on Baha Mousa's death, detainees' treatment and army methods.

Mr Singh, counsel for Mr Mousa's family and the other Iraqis detained alongside him, said: "This case is not just about beatings or a few bad apples.

"There is something rotten in the whole barrel."