UK to pay Libyan rebel £2m compensation after MI6 helped hand him over to Gaddafi

 
Tom Harper13 December 2012

Ministers have agreed to pay more than £2 million to a Libyan rebel who was abducted with the help of MI6 and secretly flown to Tripoli where he was tortured by Colonel Gaddafi’s secret police.

Sami al-Saadi, his wife and four young children were seized in Hong Kong in a joint UK operation with Libya and America’s Central Intelligence Agency.

They were bundled on to a plane in 2004 and flown back to the north African state, where Mr Saadi was held and tortured in custody for years.

The operation came at the time of former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s infamous “deal in the desert” with Gaddafi, after which British intelligence services helped track down and hand over his opponents.

Today, the High Court was told the Saadi family had settled for £2.23 million in compensation from the UK Government, which did not admit liability.

CIA correspondence with Libyan spy chief Moussa Koussa, found in Tripoli following Gaddafi’s fall last year, stated: “We are … aware that your service had been co-operating with the British to effect [Saadi’s] removal to Tripoli … the Hong Kong government may be able to co-ordinate with you to render [Saadi] and his family into your custody.”

Mr Saadi said: “Even now, the British government has never given an answer to the simple question: ‘Were you involved in the kidnap of me, my wife and my children?’ I think the payment speaks for itself.”

Kat Craig, legal director of the charity Reprieve, which supported the Saadi family, said: “We now know that Tony Blair’s ‘deal in the desert’ was bought with ugly compromises. Perhaps the ugliest was for MI6 to deliver a whole family to one of the world’s most brutal dictators.”

Sapna Malik, of Leigh Day, the law firm representing the families, said: “The sheer terror experienced by the Saadi family when they were bundled on to their rendition flight and delivered up to their nemesis clearly lives with them all to this day. Having concluded one part of their quest for justice, they now look to the British criminal courts to hold those responsible for their ordeal to account and await the judge-led inquiry they have been promised.”

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