The Government has agreed to pay more than £2 million to the family of a Libyan dissident after accepting its role in his illegal rendition, his legal team said yesterday.
Sami al Saadi, a leading Gaddafi opponent, was imprisoned and tortured after he was forced to board a plane back to Tripoli along with his wife and four children in 2004 in a joint UK-US-Libyan operation.
Ministers are understood to have offered him £2.2m, but the Government has not admitted liability, Mr al Saadi said.
“My family suffered enough when they were kidnapped and flown to Gaddafi’s Libya,” he added.
“They will now have the chance to complete their education in the new, free Libya.
“I will be able to afford the medical care I need because of the injuries I suffered in prison.
“I started this process believing that a British trial would get to the truth in my case. But today, with the Government trying to push through secret courts, I feel that to proceed is not best for my family.”
Mr al Saadi was living outside Libya to avoid Gaddafi’s agents before he and his family were put on a plane in Hong Kong and flown to Libya, where they were imprisoned.
He was held and tortured for years.
Evidence of the UK’s hand in the operation the only known occasion in the War on Terror when so-called extraordinary rendition was carried out on an entire family with young children emerged after the fall of Gaddafi’s regime, lawyers Leigh Day & Co said.
Kat Craig, legal director of human rights organisation Reprieve, called for a full inquiry into the al Saadi case.
A Government spokeswoman said: “We can confirm that the Government and the other defendants have reached a settlement with the claimants.
“There has been no admission of liability and no finding by any court of liability.”