Tony Blair has insisted he was not aware of any cases where the British intelligence services carried out the process known as rendition.
Speaking during a combative interview on the BBC's Today programme this morning, the former prime minister said the British government was "totally opposed to torture" while he was in office, but said the intelligence services were right to cooperate with foreign governments when fighting terrorism.
Blair's comments came as a Libyan man claimed he and his family were imprisoned by Colonel Gaddafi's regime after being "rendered" by MI6 along with the Libyan intelligence services.
The Guardian reports that Sami al-Saadi was tricked into travelling from mainland China to Hong Kong, from where he was flown to Tripoli. He claims he was then jailed and tortured.
"They handcuffed me and my wife on the plane, my kids and wife were crying all the way. It was a very bad situation. My wife and children were held for two months, and psychologically punished. The Libyans told me that the British were very happy," al-Saadi told the paper.
Pressed on the issue of rendition by interviewer John Humphrys, Blair said: "I don't know about these individual cases."
He added: "I can't comment on them because I don't know about them". He said he did not know "everything that is happening in the security services" while he was prime minister.
"We didn't support rendition as far as I know," he said. "There is no point putting stories to me about these people, I don't know about them."
Blair defended the British intelligence services and said that when they were cooperating with other countries in fighting terrorism they were "right to do so" but said "of course they shouldn't break the rules".