Guantanamo detainee Abu Zubaydah paid ‘substantial’ compensation by UK to settle torture complicity case
Zubaydah, a Palestinian born in Saudi Arabia, has been held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2006 without charge or conviction.
He is one of 15 prisoners who are still there despite multiple judgments and official reports detailing his mistreatment.
He was been widely dubbed a “forever prisoner”.
Zubaydah was first captured by the US in Pakistan in 2002, before being held for four years at a series of CIA “black sites” in six countries, including Lithuania and Poland.
“Black sites” were secret detention facilities around the world, outside the US legal system. Zubaydah was the first person to be detained in one.
After first taking custody of Zubaydah, CIA officers concluded that he should be cut off from the outside world for the rest of his life.
Internal MI6 messages show the agency considered his treatment would have “broken” 98% of US special forces soldiers if they had been subjected to it. Despite this, it was four years before British intelligence sought any assurances regarding his treatment in detention.
