UK Supreme Court rules in favor of Guantanamo detainees — World — Headline News – Nigeria and World News

Britain's highest court ruled Wednesday that British law can be applied to a lawsuit against the British government for complicity in torture in cases where Guantanamo detainees were waterboarded by the CIA.

Abu Zubaydah was the first of many prisoners to undergo the CIA's “enhanced interrogation” techniques after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

The Saudi-born Palestinian, whose full name is Zain al-Abidin Muhammad Hussain, was captured in Pakistan in 2002 and has been held without trial at the US military's Guantanamo camp in Cuba since 2006.

A US Senate report said Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times and suffered other physical abuse, and the CIA confirmed he was not a member of al-Qaeda or involved in planning the 9/11 attacks. It is said that

Zubaydah claims the British government is “vicarially liable” for multiple acts of wrongdoing against her, including conspiracy to injure, false imprisonment and negligence.

He is seeking personal compensation for injuries sustained during interrogations at the CIA's “black site” facilities in Thailand, Poland, Morocco, Lithuania, Afghanistan and even Guantanamo.

Mr Zubaydah has denied that the British military was involved in his capture or transfer to the facility, or that he was present during his abuse.

However, he claimed that British and international intelligence services, MI5 and MI6, were aware that he was being tortured and had “sent numerous questions” to the CIA in an attempt to extract information. There is.

The British government has neither admitted nor denied that it knew when and where Zubaydah was being held or what his treatment would be, saying it could not do so for national security reasons. claims.

It argued that the laws of the six countries where Zubaydah was detained should apply to the case.

However, the UK Supreme Court upheld an earlier Court of Appeal decision that the law of England and Wales applied.

A majority of the judges ruled that there were “substantial factors” linking the allegations to the UK.

Zubaida is also suing Poland over her treatment there. Last March, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against his request that two psychologists who were in charge of interrogating suspects by the CIA after 9/11 testify in the case.

Source: guardian.ng