MoD rethink on payout of just £87k to interpreter who lost legs & arm helping our soldiers
Qari could have received up to £570k
AN INTERPRETER who lost both legs and an arm while patrolling in Afghanistan with Scots troops is to have his compensation payout urgently reviewed by the Ministry of Defence.
Qari Zmari Babrak was working alongside the 1st Battalion of The Royal Regiment of Scotland in Helmand Province’s Sangin district, in 2010, when he was caught in a bomb blast.
Both of the Afghani interpreter’s legs were blown off at the hips, and all that was left of his left arm was from the elbow up. He described the sensation that day as being like “some kind of dream”, as he could hear troops saying he was dead.
The 30-year-old dad was awarded £87,000 in compensation from the MoD, far below the maximum payout of £570,000 that can be awarded to British servicemen who sustain severe injuries.
But now that payout is to be reviewed to take account of the fact that the cost of living in the UK is far in excess of living in Afghanistan.
Six of the Afghani serviceman’s uncles were murdered by the Taliban due to his involvement and work with the Army, and despite receiving repeated threats, it took six years for his move from his homeland to the UK to be completed.
Qari recently received a letter informing him of the review of the compensation payment. He had initially joined Nato as an interpreter four years before the bomb blast, before going on to work with British troops from 2008.
After the blast, Qari spent almost a month in an induced coma. When he regained consciousness, he had little recollection of what had happened to him.
He told the Sunday Times: “I forgot at the time that I had no legs. I wanted to walk and I was trying to sit up in bed but I wasn’t able to.”
Despite his injuries and being told he would never walk again, Qari believes he has helped Nato forces who were there to help his people. He is now married to Sedra and they have a three-year-old son, Adnan Khan. He even managed to find another job as an interpreter at the British embassy in Kabul before being moved to the UK with his wife, son and brother.
According to big-hearted Qari, who is also known as Ziaheer, much of his original payout went on providing for dozens of his cousins, and other children, who were left orphaned after their parents were killed by the Taliban.
He said: “I felt a great responsibility to help these orphans who had no other form of income or help.”
The MoD have provided Qari and his family with a two-bedroomed flat in the east of England.
He has a five-year visa and hopes to become a British citizen.