Guantanamo detainee subsidised by UK govt

LONDON:

The UK government has paid "substantial" compensation to a Guantanamo detainee who was tortured by the CIA and has been held there without charge for two decades, the BBC reported Monday.

Abu Zubaydah, 54, was the first of a number of prisoners to be subjected to CIA "enhanced interrogation" techniques following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

The Saudi-born Palestinian -- whose full name is Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn -- was captured in Pakistan in 2002 and has been held without trial at the US Guantanamo camp in Cuba since 2006.

He was waterboarded 83 times and suffered other physical abuse, according to a US Senate report, which said the CIA conceded he was never a member of Al-Qaeda and not involved in planning the 9/11 attacks.

Britain's Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that he could use English law in a legal claim against the UK government over alleged complicity in the torture.

Helen Duffy, his international legal counsel, told the BBC that the case had now reached a financial settlement.