The Government paid a suspected terrorist up to £1 million compensation even though Whitehall officials had been told that he had been at an al-Qaeda training camp planning attacks on Jewish and American targets.
Feroz Abbasi, who was captured by American forces in Afghanistan in 2001, was one of 16 detainees held at Guantánamo Bay who were paid £20 million in 2010 by the Government to settle claims of UK complicity in their rendition and detention.
Legal documents show that an al-Qaeda “supergrass” had informed security agencies in 2004 that Abbasi had been sent to Afghanistan by the extremist cleric Abu Hamza “to receive jihad training in support of al-Qaeda”.
Abbasi, 34, a former computer student from Croydon, south London, was captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and released from Guantánamo in 2005.
The documents raise concerns about why the UK was prepared to pay compensation to Abbasi when they had hard evidence that he had been at the heart of a terrorist organisation which was planning attacks on the West.
In the secret deal in 2010 between the detainees and the UK Government, both sides signed confidentiality agreements meaning the public may never know why so much money was paid out to the detainees.
Authorities in Guantanamo Bay believed Abbasi was a ‘confirmed member’ of al-Qaeda (AFP)
The Cabinet Office says it is still bound by the terms of the settlement and refuses to say exactly how much was paid and who received it.
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