UK Pays Tortured Inmate Still Held at Guantanamo

A long-running torture case tied to one of Guantanamo Bay's best-known "forever prisoners" has ended in a quiet payout from the British government. The UK has agreed to pay what lawyers described as a substantial sum to Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian detainee who was the first person subjected to the CIA's post-9/11 "enhanced interrogation" program and has been held without charge for nearly two decades, the BBC reports. Zubaydah sued the UK, alleging its intelligence services were complicit in his abuse by supplying questions to the CIA while knowing he was being severely mistreated.

The Foreign Office declined to comment, citing a policy of not discussing intelligence matters, and the amount is being kept secret for legal reasons. Zubaydah's international legal counsel, Helen Duffy, called the settlement significant but inadequate, arguing that the real issue is his continued detention at Guantanamo Bay, where he has been held since 2006. She urged the UK and other governments she says share responsibility for his "ongoing torture and unlawful detention" to press for his release. Although compensation is being processed, Duffy said Zubaydah, a Palestinian born in Saudi Arabia, currently cannot access the funds himself.

Once touted by President George W. Bush as a senior al-Qaeda figure "plotting and planning murder," Zubaydah was later downgraded, and the US no longer claims he was an al-Qaeda member. A US Senate report found he was waterboarded 83 times, confined in coffin-like boxes, and physically assaulted at CIA "black sites" in several countries before being moved to Guantanamo. A 2018 report by the UK Parliament's intelligence and security committee criticized MI5 and MI6 over their role, noting internal MI6 messages that said his treatment would have broken almost all US special forces soldiers. Former committee Chair Dominic Grieve called what happened to Zubaydah wrong and said Britain should have challenged the US and, if necessary, halted intelligence cooperation.

Zubaydah is one of 15 men still held at the US base despite lengthy legal and political scrutiny of their cases. Duffy says he hopes to use the settlement to support himself if released, but that outcome depends on decisions by the US and its allies, none of which has announced plans to free him. "This case is deeply relevant today, as some states ride roughshod over international law, and the world looks to others to respond," Duffy said, per the AP.