Abu Zubaydah remains in Guantanamo despite UK compensation for involvement in his torture

London — The British government has agreed to pay compensation to Abu Zubaydah in relation to its role in his torture by the CIA, while being held in Guantanamo and other CIA secret prisons. This follows years of litigation, secrecy, and repeated attempts by the UK state to prevent public scrutiny of its involvement in the US torture programme.

CAGE has worked on Abu Zubaydah’s case for many years, advising his legal teams and campaigning consistently for his release. Most recently, we held an event to remember Abu Zubaydah and others who have been rendered invisible by indefinite detention and legal erasure. This outcome reflects the persistence of those efforts, but it does not represent justice.

Abu Zubaydah was subjected to some of the most extreme forms of abuse used by the CIA following 9/11, but never being charged with a crime. He was used as a “guinea pig” for the development and justification of torture techniques later used across the CIA’s network of secret prisons, before his transfer to Guantánamo Bay, where he remains detained without charge to this day.

The UK’s decision to compensate Abu Zubaydah must be understood in the context of its broader role in the so-called “War on Terror”. British intelligence was not operating at the margins of this system, uninvolved with the horrific brutality inflicted on these prisoners. It was integrated into it - through intelligence sharing, cooperation with renditions, and engagement with US agencies at every stage of the detention and interrogation process. This settlement reinforces what survivors, lawyers, and campaigners have long documented: the UK was directly implicated in crimes that international law prohibits without exception.

This is not the first time the British government has quietly paid compensation in connection with Guantánamo and related abuses. In 2010, former Guantánamo prisoners with links to the UK, including CAGE Senior Director Moazzam Begg, received settlements after years of legal action - again without any admission of liability and without a single official being held accountable. 

Moazzam Begg, Senior Director at CAGE International, said:

“In a post Gaza genocide world, it should never be forgotten that the CIA developed and executed its mediaeval torture program to break an innocent, stateless Palestinian. That man is Abu Zubaydah who, despite being imprisoned for 24 years without charge or trial in CIA black sites and Guantanamo, has won cases against 4 European nations for complicity in his torture. Britain, found to be complicit in the torture of 16 of its own nationals and residents, is one of those nations. 

That’s why Keir Starmer should call upon President Trump to release Abu Zubaydah and resettle him in a place where he’ll be safe and welcomed.”

Abu Zubaydah remains imprisoned. Other men also remain in Guantánamo. The legal architecture that enabled torture, rendition, and indefinite detention remains largely intact. Compensation does not undo torture, nor does it dismantle the policies that allowed it to take place.

This case further exposes the distortions at the heart of the War on Terror - a framework that normalised kidnap, abuse, and lifelong detention while presenting itself as a defence of law and security. Until there is full accountability, transparency, and the release of those still held without charge, these payments will remain what they have always been: a mechanism for managing scandal, and attempts at appeasing any resistance to what once was and what still remains of these facilities. 

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