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Britain to compensate former Guantanamo Bay detainees alleging abuse
The British government will pay millions of dollars to 15 former Guantanamo Bay detainees, and a current one, who accused the country's security services of collusion in torture and unlawful imprisonment, an extraordinary settlement that officials here insisted was not an admission of guilt.
Security agencies in Britain have repeatedly insisted they were not complicit in alleged acts of torture against the prisoners, all of whom are British citizens or residents. Ken Clarke, the justice secretary, told Parliament that the settlement was meant to avoid years of costly litigation to defend security agents.
"The alternative to any payments made would have been protracted and extremely expensive litigation in an uncertain legal environment in which the government could not be certain that it would be able to defend . . . security and intelligence agencies without compromising national security," Clarke said.
The settlement represents the first time any Guantanamo Bay detainee, of 779 who have passed through or are still held at the military prison in Cuba, has received a financial settlement because of his incarceration. And the payments are all the more significant because they are being made by the closest military and security partner of the United States. The George W. Bush and Obama administrations, as well as the federal courts, have rejected the idea of compensation.