LONDON -- Several former Guantanamo Bay detainees who sued Britain for alleged complicity in their torture will receive unspecified settlement payments from the government, officials said Tuesday.
The former prisoners accused Britain's spy agency, MI5, and the country's overseas intelligence service, MI6, of violating international law by doing nothing to stop the torture the detainees suffered at the hands of others at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. British agents were not accused of torturing the detainees.
Although British officials did not specify how many former detainees would receive settlements, 16 former prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and other overseas detention centers were expected to receive payments based on the accusations of at least 12 of them, according to the BBC and other reports.
Justice Secretary Ken Clarke said in a statement to parliament that settlements had been reached. The confidentiality of such agreements is legally binding, therefore details would not be made public, Clarke said.
British intelligence officials said in a statement that the settlements would allow MI5 and MI6 to concentrate on "protecting national security."
The former detainees include Binyam Mohamed, Bisher al-Rawi, Jamil el-Banna, Richard Belmar, Omar Deghayes, Moazzam Begg and Martin Mubanga, who were all imprisoned in Guantanamo. Some were also held in Afghanistan, Morocco and Egypt as terrorist suspects but were released after years of detention.
The men sued in Britain's High Court claiming British intelligence services masterminded their rendition and transport to various locations including Guantanamo and subsequent torture. Water-boarding and beating were among methods used, they said, and one ex-prisoner claimed he lost the sight of one eye after severe rubbing with a pepper-drenched cloth.
Clarke said the settlements avoided lengthy and expensive court proceedings. The government reportedly did not admit liability, and the detainees did not withdraw their allegations.
"We have saved public money instead of continuing to contest the claims," he said. "It was better to settle it than just let it go on. No one should read into this any liability."
Government officials expressed concerns about any public disclosure of evidence.
In interviews last week, former U.S. President George Bush boasted that he authorized some techniques - which many have labeled torture under the Geneva Conventions - for the interrogation of suspected terrorists, and that the methods yielded intelligence that saved lives, The Associated Press reported. Bush gave no specifics on plots that were thwarted.
Britain has long opposed some of the interrogation techniques that Bush administration officials authorized in the so-called war on terror after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. Many government officials have said that such techniques can produce false information, as suspects eventually say anything to make the abuse stop.
The new coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats led by Prime Minister David Cameron, keen to distance itself from the allegations of torture brought while the Labor government was in power, negotiated the settlement.
