UK apologises for role in Libyan military leader’s rendition with pregnant wife
After a prolonged legal battle, the British government has apologised for the illegal rendition of a former Libyan rebel commander who says he was tortured by the Qaddafi regime.
Abdul Hakim Belhaj was snatched, along with his pregnant wife, in South East Asia in 2004, in a CIA-led operation based on intelligence supplied by the UK. He was held in a Libyan jail for six years, during which time he was questioned by UK officials.
Mr Belhaj’s wife, Fatima Boudchar, and son Abderrahim, 14, were in the public gallery as the UK Attorney General, Jeremy Wright, told the House of Commons that Theresa May has written to the family to apologise, saying what happened to them was “deeply troubling”.
“During your detention in Libya, we sought information about and from you. We wrongly missed opportunities to alleviate your plight: this should not have happened,” Mr Wright said. “The UK government has learned many lessons from this period … we sincerely regret our failures.”
The statement said that there was no admission of liability on the part of any of the defendants and that Mrs Boudchar was to receive £500,000 in compensation. Mr Belhaj received no payout.
The settlement comes six years after Mr Belhaj first offered to settle the case for an apology and no damages but instead resorted to a series of court actions that threatened to reveal the secrets of the intelligence operations between Britain and America to the public.
Mr Belhaj, now a prominent figure in a powerful Libyan Islamist faction, was represented by Leigh Day, a legal firm that earlier this year found itself at the centre of a scandal amid allegations it was involved in a “factory” set up to encourage false claims against the UK Ministry of Defence over the conduct of British Army personnel in Iraq.
Despite previous suggestions of a settlement, Mr Belhaj persisted with the case, calling since 2012 for an apology from the British government, alongside a symbolic payment of £1 from each of the defendants. In launching legal proceedings, Mr Belhaj was also assisted by the campaign group Reprieve, which acted on behalf of many of the Guantanamo Bay detainees.
His battle with British authorities can be traced back to 2004, when he was arrested, with his wife, in Kuala Lumpur. He was subsequently handed back to the Libyan regime via the UK-controlled island of Diego Garcia. Mr Belhaj then spent almost 7 years in prison, where he was tortured. He said that the former UK foreign secretary Jack Straw had authorised the move.
Mr Belhaj returned to public consciousness in 2011 as the Libyan uprising unfolded, leading the brigade responsible for the capture of Bab Al Azizia, former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s main military base during the battle for Tripoli, and later as head of the National Military Council.
Kristian Coates-Ulrichsen of the Baker Institute for Public Policy, said Mr Belhaj was one of the key Qatari-backed actors in the Libyan opposition.
Al Watan, the political party he headed, was founded by the controversial cleric Ismael Al Salabi, whose brother Ali has been given sanctuary in Doha. His followers have since been linked to those responsible for a string of violent attacks, including the Manchester bombing last year and the Sousse attacks in Tunisia in 2015 that was perpetrated by Ansar Al Sharia.
His long record stretches back to 1988, when much of the Islamic Fighting Group fled to Afghanistan, where a warrant said Mr Belhaj formed “close relationships” with senior Al Qaeda members and Taliban chief Mullah Omar.
Arab officials have gone so far as referring to him as the “Libyan apostle of Osama bin Laden”.
Mr Belhaj has always denied links to Al Qaeda. In 2011, he told Time magazine: “It happened that we found ourselves in the same place at the same time as Al Qaeda: in Afghanistan, where we sometimes fought next to them when it was to liberate the country, but we were never at their service.”
It was during the Libyan revolution that allegations against the UK government’s involvement in the rendition came to light.
A letter from Sir Mark Allen, then head of MI6’s counter-terrorism unit, was later found in the office of former Libyan intelligence chief Moussa Koussa. Dated 2004, it read: “I congratulate you on the safe arrival of [Mr Belhaj]. This was the least we could do for you and for Libya to demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built over recent years.”
Mr Belhaj was presented with Theresa May’s letter of apology by the British ambassador to Turkey. He said: “I welcome and accept the Prime Minister’s apology, and I extend to her and the Attorney General my thanks and goodwill.”
The settlement comes six years after Abdul Hakim Belhaj first offered to settle the case for an apology and no damages