UK Pays Compensation to Guantanamo Detainee Abu Zubaydah Over Mistreatment

The UK government has provided a “substantial” compensation payment to Saudi-born Palestinian Abu Zubaydah, who has been held at the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay for nearly two decades without trial, the BBC reported.

Abu Zubaydah was captured in Pakistan in 2002 and accused of being a senior Al-Qaeda operative following the September 11 attacks. While the US later dropped these allegations, he remains in detention and was subjected to CIA “enhanced interrogation” techniques, widely described as torture.

The compensation follows revelations that British security services, despite knowing of his mistreatment, submitted questions to US authorities for Abu Zubaydah. He alleged that MI5 and MI6 had been “complicit” in his torture, leading to a legal case and the subsequent payout.

Dominic Grieve, the UK’s former attorney general who chaired a panel reviewing the case, described the payment as “very unusual” but said Abu Zubaydah’s treatment had been “plainly” wrong. Grieve added that British authorities were aware that the Americans were acting in a way that should have raised serious concern, and that the UK should have challenged or suspended co-operation sooner.

Abu Zubaydah’s international legal counsel, Professor Helen Duffy, welcomed the compensation but called it “insufficient,” noting that his rights continue to be violated. “These violations of his rights are not historic, they are ongoing,” she said. Duffy added that the payment would support Abu Zubaydah as he continues to pursue his release.

Abu Zubaydah is one of 15 individuals still held at Guantanamo, many without charge. He was the first person taken to a CIA “black site” and was subsequently held in six secret locations, including Lithuania and Poland, outside US legal jurisdiction. Internal MI6 documents reportedly stated that the enhanced interrogation techniques used on him would have “broken” the resolve of 98 percent of US special forces personnel.

A US Senate report detailed that Abu Zubaydah had been waterboarded at least 83 times, confined in coffin-like boxes, and regularly assaulted. Much of this treatment would be considered torture under UK law. British intelligence services took four years to raise concerns with their US counterparts, during which time their submission of questions contributed to what Duffy described as a “market” for detainee torture.

A 2018 UK Parliament report was critical of MI5 and MI6’s actions, also noting implications for other Guantanamo detainees, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a key figure in the September 11 attacks.

Neither MI5 nor MI6 have commented on the case, and the UK government has not provided further statements on the compensation.