UK apologises to former Libyan rebel for torture
Britain has apologised to Libyan former rebel Abdul Hakim Belhadj and his wife Fatima Boudchar for the role of British spies in their 2004 rendition from Thailand to Libya, where Belhadj was tortured by Muammar Gaddafi’s henchmen.
Belhadj, who was a known opponent of Gaddafi’s regime, and his pregnant wife were abducted by US CIA agents in Thailand and then illegally transferred to Tripoli with the help of British spies.
“The UK government believes your accounts. Neither of you should have been treated in this way,” Prime Minister Theresa May wrote to the couple in a letter.
“The UK government’s actions contributed to your detention, rendition and suffering … On behalf of Her Majesty’s Government, I apologise unreservedly,” May wrote.
Boudchar, who after her rendition was detained in Libya until shortly before giving birth, was in the public gallery in parliament in London with her son to hear Britain’s attorney general make a statement about the case.
In a written statement sent by his lawyers shortly after the announcement, Belhadj thanked May for her apology.
“Today is a historic day, not just for myself and my wife,” he said. “A great society does not torture, does not help others to torture, and when it makes mistakes it accepts them and apologises.” Belhadj and Boudchar had brought legal claims against Britain’s former foreign affairs minister, a senior intelligence chief and various government departments and agencies, seeking an apology and symbolic damages.
The British government tried to fight the claims in court but the Supreme Court in 2017 gave the couple the right to sue the defendants.
Attorney-general Jeremy Wright told parliament all the claims had now been withdrawn as part of a full and final out-of-court settlement.
As part of that settlement, the government agreed to give Boudchar $676,000 in compensation for her suffering. Wright said no admissions of liability had been made by any of the defendants. Belhadj, who had said all along he was seeking justice and an apology rather than a financial settlement, was detained for six years after being rendered to Libya.
He later went on to command an Islamist rebel group that helped topple Gaddafi in 2011, and is now a politician.