Britain pays Guantanamo prisoner in torture case settlement

Britain has paid a "substantial sum" to a Guantanamo Bay detainee who filed a lawsuit against the British government for its alleged involvement in his torture and detention, according to his legal team.

Lawyers for Abu Zubaydah, 54, alleged that British intelligence services gave questions to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency while it tortured him at various black sites around the world between 2002 and 2006, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

Zubaydah's full name is Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn. He is a Palestinian who grew up in Saudi Arabia and has Saudi citizenship. He's been held in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2006 without charges.

He is one of 15 who are still being held despite judgments and official reports detailing his torture.

He has been called a "forever prisoner."

In 2022, Lithuania paid Zubaydah more than $100,000 in for torture he sustained in the country. In 2015, Poland paid him and another prisoner $133,000 each for torture they sustained on Polish soil.

The amount of compensation from the United Kingdom was not revealed.

"It is important, symbolically and practically, that U.K. pays for its role in our client's torture," said Helen Duffy, his attorney. "The settlement provides a measure of redress and implicit recognition of our client's intolerable suffering at the hands of the CIA, enabled by the United Kingdom."

Lawyers for Abu Zubaydah, 54, alleged that British intelligence services gave questions to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency while it tortured him at various black sites around the world between 2002 and 2006.

News.Az