Libyan politician offers to settle UK lawsuit for £3 and an apology

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Guardian

A Libyan politician who is suing the former foreign secretary Jack Straw and the British government for damages after being kidnapped and taken to one of Gaddafi's jails has offered to settle the case for just £3, providing he also receives an unreserved apology.

In a challenge to British government claims that a new generation of secret courts is needed to prevent large payouts to claimants in national security cases, Abdel Hakim Belhaj says he will settle the action – through which one other dissident received a £2.2m pay-out – for a pound each from the government, Straw, and Sir Mark Allen, former head of counter-terrorism at MI6.

Belhaj was leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, opposing the Libyan dictator, when he and his wife were detained by American intelligence officers at Bangkok airport in March 2004.

Allegedly he was tortured for several days while his wife, who was five months' pregnant, was chained to a wall at a secret prison at the airport. The couple were then flown to Tripoli, where Belhaj spent the next six years in jail.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/04/libyan-politician-uk-lawsuit-apology

[pampango]

1. I love the offer to settle for £3 and a UK apology for torture in Ghaddafi's prisons.

Belhaj wrote to David Cameron last week to say that he would settle for just a pound from each defendant, providing each of them unreservedly apologised to his wife and himself.

In his letter, Belhaj says he will "forever be grateful to Britain" for helping the Libyan people topple Gaddafi, and that he is anxious to see good relations between the two countries.

He writes: "For this reason, I am making an open offer to settle our litigation. My wife and I are willing to end our case against the UK government and Messrs Straw and Allen in exchange for a token compensation of a British pound from each defendant, an apology and an admission of liability for what was done to us." He added that he wanted to lay to rest all claims that he and his wife were bringing the claim to enrich themselves.

"My wife and I suffered deeply during our kidnap and in Libya, and … continue to suffer. My wife may never be the same again. But we have come to court in Britain because we believe your courts can deliver justice. We are primarily bringing this claim to secure a public judgment, recognising the wrongs we have suffered."

I wonder why he is not suing the US since it was American intelligence officers who arrested him and flew him to Tripoli in the first place.

[Diclotican]

2. pampango

pampango

In the UK, he at least have the ability, and possibility to make some form of justice - in the US, he would not even be able to visit the country to make his claim - he would more than possible just be turned away at the airport, put on another aircraft out of the country - and maybe even be arrested and hold in detention for a while.. He have experienced the US way of justice, and I guess he are not that keen on experiencing that again..

Diclotican

[pampango]

3. I understand that he has no legal right to enter the US to pursue a lawsuit. Will the UK allow

him to enter there in order to pursue some form of justice? How is he able to sue UK officials, but not US officlals?

Thanks for your earlier response.

[Diclotican]

4. pampango

pampango

I am not sure why he is not eligible, or able to enter the US, to pursue a lawsuit against the US government - but it looks like the british do have a few exception from that type of laws.. I think it is mostly because if anyone had sued the US government - a lot filth from the cellars of the CIA would have been making its debu into the scene of the ordinary american. And I am afraid no government would have survived that.... If america had known, what have been doing in their name the last couple of decades, I am afraid the country had erupted in a lot of anger - who I doubt the police, or national guard would have been able to put down - if not using brutal force... Ordinary americans is still honest for the most part.. But horrible misguided and misinformed

And I guess, for many reason - the british politic ans is still legally bounded to follow the law of the land not to make up their own way of doing things... And this is maybe a way of making a case going away - for both sides.. I guess it would be hard for the two - who have been put in a prison by Qaddafi forces - and more than possible tortured horrible by the secret service of the Qaddafi era.. They was known to be rather primitive in their ways - but what they lack in advancement, they got back in brute force and brutality...

Diclotican