Ahead of an election broadcast for the Labour Party by Stephen Hopkins, director of the hit television series “24”, Amnesty International UK Head of Policy and Government Affairs Jeremy Croft said:

“Getting 24’s director is all well and good and we make no criticism of any party for the style of their election broadcasts.

“Whoever wins the election, however, we need to ensure that there are no real-life Jack Bauers in our intelligence services.

“The best way of achieving this is for the next government to allow an independent and wide-ranging inquiry into all aspects of the UK’s alleged involvement in ‘war on terror’ abuses like rendition, secret detention and torture.”

Amnesty has been campaigning for an inquiry into long-standing allegations of complicity by UK officials in the torture and secret detention of UK nationals and others in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Morocco and other countries.

Amnesty activists across the country are currently lobbying parliamentary candidates to include human rights issues in their election campaigns.