'Suicide bomber' Ronald Fiddler compensation payout questioned
Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Ronald Fiddler is believed to have blown himself up in an attack on Iraqi forces in Mosul.
Thursday 23 February 2017 14:42, UK
A Home Office minister has refused to answer questions about whether a Briton who apparently became a suicide bomber in Iraq had received a 拢1m payout.
Ronald Fiddler, also known as Jamal al-Harith, is said by Islamic State to have blown himself up in an attack on Iraqi forces in Mosul.
He had reportedly received compensation from the British Government in 2010 for the time he had spent as a detainee in Guantanamo Bay.
Although Fiddler had been monitored by British security services he was still able to travel to Syria in 2014.
Responding to an urgent question in the Commons, Security Minister Ben Wallace told MPs: "The monitoring of individuals is an intelligence matter and the Government do not and cannot comment on individual cases.
"Neither can the Government comment on whether particular individuals have received compensation payments."
The Government is under scrutiny for the amount of money Fiddler received and faces further questions about whether or not he was being properly monitored by security services.
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said: "There will be natural public concern that the minister has chosen to hide behind the notion of sensitive intelligence to fail to answer even the simplest factual questions about this case."
Former justice secretary Ken Clarke has said that payments had to be made to former Guantanamo detainees as security interests prevented the claims from being countered in court.
On Wednesday, former prime minister Tony Blair admitted his government had lobbied for Fiddler to be released from Guantanamo Bay in 2004 but said it was the Conservative government which made the compensation payment in 2010.
Prime Minister Theresa May was Home Secretary both at the time of the payout and at the point when Fiddler is believed to have left the country.