Guantanamo detainee who was waterboarded 83 times by the CIA may sue the UK government

Abu Zubaydah has been held by US authorities since his capture in Pakistan in 2002. In 2006, he was sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. where he has been kept ever since. Photo: US Central Command

A Guantanamo detainee who was waterboarded 83 times by the CIA has won a Supreme Court appeal to use English law in his case against the UK government.

< p>Zain al-Abidin Muhammad Hussein, a Palestinian popularly known as Abu Zubaydah, is suing the Foreign, Commonwealth and Pakistan Offices. Department of Development (FCDO), Ministry of Home Affairs and the Attorney General for alleged complicity in his torture.

Mr. Zubaydah has been detained by US authorities since his arrest in Pakistan in 2002, and in 2006 year was sent to Guantanamo. Bay in Cuba, where he is still being held.

The High Court previously heard Mr Zubaydah's claim that he was «arbitrarily detained» in CIA «black prisons» in Thailand, Poland, Morocco, Lithuania and Afghanistan, where he was «subjected to extreme ill-treatment and torture».

Claims v UK Government

Mr Zubaydah claims that the FCDO, the Home Office and the Director of Public Prosecutions are “vicariously liable” for numerous offenses against him, including conspiracy to cause harm and false imprisonment.

He did not suggest that UK Forces were involved in his detention, delivery to the black zone or were present during his ill-treatment and torture.

However, he claims that the security services of MI5 and MI6 knew that he had been subjected to extreme ill-treatment and torture by the CIA since at least May 2002, and were still sending «numerous» questions to the agency for use in questioning.

The High Court was previously asked to decide whether English law applied to Mr Zubaydah's claim or whether it should be the law of the six countries in which he was detained.

In a decision handed down in February 2021, a High Court judge ruled that the laws of the six countries in which he was detained applied to his case. That decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal last year, and in a majority on Wednesday the Supreme Court upheld the appeal court's decision.

Government agencies neither admitted nor denied knowing where Mr Zubaydah was . was detained at times, or that they knew how he was being treated, claiming they could not do so on national security grounds.

However, four judges at Britain's highest court found there were «significant factors». » linking the charges to the UK.

In delivering the majority judgment, Lord Lloyd-Jones and Lord Stevens said: «In our opinion, the plaintiff has made a compelling case for a substitution of the general rule in the unusual circumstances of this case.»

However, in his dissenting judgment, Lord Sales said that «it is of great importance that the plaintiff suffered injuries and was imprisoned in six countries.»