On 28 June 2018, the UK Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee issued a report on “Detainee Mistreatment and Rendition: 2001–2010.” The report found that UK intelligence agencies submitted questions to be put to Abu Zubaydah during his torture, despite knowing what was happening to him. The report, states:
- “The case of Abu Zubaydah shows direct awareness of extreme mistreatment – and, probable torture, given the view that 98 per cent of US Special Forces would have broken. However, the Agencies continued to send the CIA questions to be used in interrogations without seeking any assurances regarding Zubaydah’s treatment in detention, until at least 2006.”
- The report also noted that, per the 2014 Senate report, “during this period Zubaydah was routinely subjected to treatment that, by UK standards, would be considered torture (including being ‘waterboarded’).”
In 2021, legal action for civil damages was launched in the courts of the United Kingdom concerning the UK government’s complicity in his torture. The UK would later pay him a substantial settlement, as outlined below.