The Telegraph on October 17, 2011 reported that British forces which captured the couple, were unable to hand them over to the Afghans for prosecution in case they were tortured, even though troops are in the country to protect the rule of law. They were more or less caught red handed,” one security source said. “There is no doubt about it, they had already received bomb-making training and were planning to return to the UK.” But lawyers in Britain approached the couple through the Foreign Office and blocked their transfer to the Afghan authorities because of their well-documented record of torturing prisoners. Diplomats believed it would be too difficult to get assurances from the Afghan government that the pair would not be mistreated.

The original article can be found at telegraph.co.uk.