British pay-out for Gitmo Bay detainees

BRITAIN has agreed to pay hefty settlements to a group of former Guantanamo Bay detainees who sued the government for alleged complicity in their torture — one of the first big pay-outs stemming from the US-led war on terrorism.

After months of legal wrangling, Britain’s spy agencies chose to settle the lawsuit to avoid a pricey and prolonged court case in which open testimony from secret agents could have jeopardised national security, a British government official told The Associated Press yesterday on condition of anonymity.

At least seven former detainees would receive payments and at least one man would receive more than £1 million (€1.7m), according to a second source.

British spies have not been accused of torturing detainees themselves, but former detainees have alleged that British officials violated international law by knowing about the abuse and doing nothing to stop it.

In interviews last week, former US president George Bush said he authorised some techniques — which others have labelled torture — for the interrogation of suspected terrorists, and that the methods yielded intelligence that saved lives.

Britain has long opposed some of the interrogation techniques that Bush administration officials authorised in the so-called war on terror after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

Allegations of torture and abuse have been widespread among many Guantanamo detainees who were held in Afghanistan and other countries before being sent to the US prison camp in Cuba.

The most detailed account of abuse came from former detainee Binyam Mohamed, who alleged that Britain was aware that the CIA sent him to be interrogated in Morocco, where his genitals were sliced with a scalpel.

Before he was returned to Britain from the US prison camp, lawyers for Mohamed sued in the British courts for intelligence transcripts to prove Britain knew he was being abused and that any evidence US officials had was tainted.

A British court ruled that Mohamed was subjected to “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” by US authorities.

This is thought to be one of the first bulk pay-outs to former Guantanamo detainees. The settlement paves the way for an independent inquiry to examine how much the government knew about the treatment of detainees by allies.