Rangzieb Ahmed

Rangzieb Ahmed is a British Citizen who was allegedly the highest ranking Al-Qaeda operative in the United Kingdom. Ahmed, who was a key link between British recruits and al-Qaeda leaders, was responsible for setting up a terrorist cell in Manchester, and had contacts with one of the terrorists responsible for the failed 21 July 2005 London bombings.

Ahmed was born in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, but moved to Pakistani Kashmir at the age of 7 or 8. At the age of 18, Ahmed was arrested by Indian forces after allegedly fighting as part of the group Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. Ahmed received money in jail from Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the extremist who later murdered Daniel Pearl. Ahmed was held in an Indian jail for seven years without charge, and during this time was allegedly tortured. Ahmed was released in 2001 and visited Britain briefly before returning to Pakistan. He visited Britain again in 2005.

In 2005 surveillance by British intelligence revealed a diary in Ahmed's luggage containing Al-Qaeda contacts, some in invisible ink, including personal details of Abu Hamza Rabia (Abu Hamza was later killed in Pakistan, on 30 November 2005, during a US/Pakistani joint operation). Traces of explosives were also found on his rucksack.

He was initially held in a secret Pakistani prison system, wherein he alleges he was tortured alongside Hassan Ghul.

Ahmed was arrested at Heathrow airport in 2007 after arriving on a flight from Pakistan and charged with "directing the activities of an organisation which was concerned in the commission of acts of terrorism", "possessing three books containing information which would be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism" and "possession of a rucksack containing traces of explosive, in circumstances which suggested it was for a purpose connected with terrorism".

In December 2008, Ahmed was convicted in the UK of "directing the activities of an organisation which was concerned in the commission of acts of terrorism". This made him the first member of Al-Qaeda to be convicted of directing terrorism in the U.K. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and should serve a minimum of 10 years before he is considered for parole. .

On 7 July 2009, MP David Davis accused the UK government of outsourcing torture, by allowing Ahmed to leave the country (even though they had evidence against him upon which he was later convicted) to Pakistan, where it is said the Inter-Services Intelligence was given the go ahead by the British intelligence agencies to torture Ahmed. Davis further accused the government of trying to gag Ahmed, stopping him coming forward with his accusations, after he had been imprisoned back in the UK. He said, there was "an alleged request to drop his allegations of torture: if he did that, they could get his sentence cut and possibly give him some money. If this request to drop the torture case is true, it is frankly monstrous. It would at the very least be a criminal misuse of the powers and funds under the Government's Contest strategy, and at worst a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice."