Ex-UK foreign secretary faces legal action in rendition case

FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2014 file photo, Britain's former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw gestures as he speaks in a press conference at the Iranian parliament in Tehran, Iran. Jack Straw is facing legal action in a suit brought by a former Libyan dissident who alleges he and his wife were abducted and sent to Tripoli a decade ago to be interrogated by the regime of late dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Straw on Tuesday Jan. 17, 2017, denies any complicity "in the unlawful rendition or detention of anyone by other states." (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File) (The Associated Press)

Former U.K. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is facing legal action in a suit brought by a former Libyan dissident who alleges he and his wife were abducted and sent to Tripoli a decade ago to be interrogated by the regime of late dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Britain's Supreme Court ruled the suit against Straw and senior MI6 officer Mark Allen must be allowed to proceed in English courts, rejecting a government request for it to be blocked.

Straw is one of the defendants in an action brought by Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife Fatima Boudchar. Straw denies any complicity "in the unlawful rendition or detention of anyone by other states."

Straw said Tuesday that "at no stage so far have the merits" of the case "been tested before any court."