LONDON — Britain’s police watchdog investigated brutality allegations today against six London officers who were suspended over claims they abused suspects arrested in drug raids.
Media reported the officers used torture techniques including a variation on waterboarding, or simulated drowning, and dunked suspects’ heads in buckets of water.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission said it was investigating “the conduct and actions of six police officers during the execution of two drugs warrants at addresses in north London on November 4, 2008.”
The Metropolitan Police force confirmed the six officers were suspended over their conduct during the arrests of five people in the London borough of Enfield in November. The force would not comment on the specific nature of the allegations.
London Mayor Boris Johnson said the allegations were “extremely serious and need to be thoroughly investigated.”
Two newspapers, The Times of London and the Daily Mail, and Sky News television reported that officers used a variation of the torture technique known as waterboarding, in which water is poured on the faces of prone victims to simulate drowning. They did not give details of how this was done beyond saying that officers held suspects’ heads under water.
The Metropolitan Police said a police employee had raised concerns about “a small number of officers” in Enfield, and the case had been referred to the watchdog in April.
The force said that, if allegations of wrongdoing were proved true, “the strongest possible action will be taken.”
Nine Enfield police officers were suspended in February after an anti-corruption investigation. The six being accused of brutality are among them.
Waterboarding is almost universally condemned in Britain as torture. Britain is signatory to the U.N. Convention Against Torture, which requires that governments prevent torture anywhere under their jurisdiction.
U.S. President Barack Obama has banned the use of the technique.
London police officers also are facing allegations that they used excessive force during protests against the G-20 summit in London in April. The complaints commission is investigating several incidents, including the death of newspaper vendor Ian Tomlinson, who collapsed after he was shoved to the ground by police. Results of an initial autopsy suggested Tomlinson died of a heart attack, but a second examination said he’d suffered internal bleeding.
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