UK pays heavy compensation to long-held Guantanamo prisoner

Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian man who was held at the Guantanamo Bay, for nearly two decades, has been given “substantial” compensation by the British Government for illegal torture.

Zubaydah was caught in Faisalabad, Pakistan in 2002 after the September 11 attacks in New York and remained in U.S. custody since 2006, without trial.

While in prison, Zubaydah was subjected to CIA’s unlawful interrogation techniques and severe forms of mistreatment according to US senate reports. He was initially suspected to be a senior Al-Qaeda agent, a claim that was later taken back by US officials. 

His lawyers filed a case in the UK claiming that British intelligence agencies MI5 and MI6 were involved in his torture by providing questions to his U.S. interrogators despite knowing he was being severely mistreated. In 2023 the British court ordered the compensation to be made to Zubaydah for the unlawful torture he endured.

The exact amount of compensation, however, has not been publicly disclosed. Zubaydah’s lawyers now call for his release from Guantanamo, where he remains detained without charge.