Post date: Dec 14, 2012 1:8:28 PM
The British government will pay more than 2 million pounds ($3.2 million) to the family ofSami al-Saadi, who say Britain was involved in his rendition to Tripoli where he was tortured.
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (DECEMBER 13, 2012)(ITN) - The British government agreed to pay more than 2 million pounds ($3.2 million) on Thursday (December 13) to the family of a leading opponent of the late Libyan leaderMuammar Gaddafi who says Britain was involved in his rendition to Tripoli where he was tortured.
Sami al-Saadi, who had for years tried to avoid Gaddafi's agents, was abducted with his wife and four young children in Hong Kong in 2004, forced onto a plane and flown toLibya where they were all imprisoned.Saadi was then tortured for years following the joint British-U.S.-Libyan operation, said British legal charity Reprieve, who were involved in his case.
The charity said Britain's role in the rendition only came to light in 2011 after Gaddafi was ousted from power, when correspondence between the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) and Libyan intelligence was found by Human Rights Watch in the office of Gaddafi's former spy chief Moussa Koussa.
"This goes to the highest levels of MI6, the British involvement. We know that Mark Allenthe then director of counter-terrorism of MI6 corresponded directly with the head of interrogation Moussa Koussa under the Gaddafi regime. He was involved and he knew fully of the details of both Sami al-Saadi and Abdel Hakim elBelhadj's case," Kat Craig, Legal Director at Reprieve said.
Reprieve said Britain had now agreed to pay Saadi and his family 2.2 million pounds.
The rendition occurred when Britain's relations with Libya thawed during Tony Blair's period as prime minister. He visited Libya in 2004 and announced that Gaddafi was ready to help Britain's fight against terrorism.
"It was British intelligence that led to the rendition and British officers who interrogated these individuals whilst they were being detained under the
Gaddafi regime and whilst they were being tortured," Craig said.
"We can confirm that the government and the other defendants have reached settlement with the claimant," said a Foreign Office spokesman. "There has been no admission of liability and no finding of any court of liability."
Members of the British domestic intelligence agency MI5 and its foreign equivalent MI6 have for years faced accusations they had colluded in the ill treatment of detainees, often at the hands of U.S. authorities.
The issue was so serious Foreign Secretary William Hague said last year that Britain's international standing had been damaged by the allegations.
Saadi said there should be a public inquiry into his case and others like him who say they were rendered to Libya with British cooperation.
"Even now, the British government has never given an answer to the simple question: 'Were you involved in the kidnap of me, my wife and my children?'" Saadi said in a statement.
"Mr al-Saadi's only motivation now is to find accountability and justice and to ensure this will not happen again to others. That the British government stays within the bounds of law as they failed to do in the case where they rendered, and were complicit in the rendering of him and his family," Craig said.
Abdel Hakim Belhadj, a Libyan Islamist leader who says he also suffered years of torture after British agents secretly handed him over to Gaddafi's government in 2004, said he would continue his legal action against the government and MI6.
British police announced in January that they would investigate Belhadj's allegations to see if British spies were guilty of any criminal offences. ($1 = 0.6199 British pounds)