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Former detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba are set to be paid millions of pounds in compensation by the government, the BBC understands.
Six former prisoners, including Binyam Mohamed, had sought the compensation via the High Court.
They had alleged that British security forces were complicit in their torture before they arrived at Guantanamo.
The Cabinet Office has said a ministerial statement will be made on Tuesday.
A lawyer connected to the Guantanamo detainees told the BBC that the government has settled a case, brought by a number of men who alleged that the British security services were complicit in their torture.
Bisher al-Rawi, Jamil el Banna, Richard Belmar, Omar Deghayes, Binyam Mohamed, Martin Mubanga had all begun cases against the government.
In July, the High Court ordered the release of some of the 500,000 documents relating to the case.
BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins said that around 100 intelligence officers had been working around the clock preparing legal cases.
He said the government wanted to avoid the cost of the court case, and that the terms of the settlement would remain confidential – something wanted by both the men and the government.
He added that the Intelligence and Security Committee and the National Audit Office would be briefed about the payments.
He said the government would now be able to move forward with plans for an inquiry, led by Sir Peter Gibson, into claims that UK security services were complicit in the torture of terror suspects.
The Cabinet Office said: “The prime minister set out clearly in his statement to the House (of Commons) on July 6 that we need to deal with the totally unsatisfactory situation where for ‘the past few years, the reputation of our security services has been overshadowed by allegations about their involvement in the treatment of detainees held by other countries’.”
The UK security services have always denied any claims that they have used or condoned the use of torture.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
There is intense speculation the Irish government needs financial help from the European Union
Eurozone ministers are set to meet in Brussels as the debt crisis once again threatens the 16-member bloc’s economic stability.
The talks come as the spotlight once again falls on the weaker member countries, and whether they can manage their debt without help from European Union (EU) assistance funds.
The Irish Republic on Monday insisted it did not need EU help.
But there is intense speculation it may be forced to use EU bail-out money.
Dublin said it was in contact with “international colleagues” but the Prime Minister, Brian Cowan, dismissed talk of a bail-out by the EU or IMF.
“One of the great pejorative phrases that continue to be used is this thing of bail out which suggests that the country is in some way seeking not to meet its obligations to meet its own debts – that is not the case,” he said.
He added that his government had firm plans for sorting out the country’s problems.
“In the coming weeks will be putting forward the plans that show how we put our budget back into order as a member of the Euro area,” he said.
Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, said the eurozone was ready to act “as soon as possible” if Ireland sought financial assistance.
But he stressed that “Ireland has not put forward their request”.
“As long as they don’t, we are not supposed to deal with a theoretical request,” he said.
A spokesman for Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said that pressure on Dublin to take a bail-out was not coming from the European Commissioner, but from “another player”.
Last week, market anxiety spread to other heavily indebted eurozone nations, including Portugal and Spain, driving up their borrowing costs.
Portuguese Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos told the Financial Times there was now a high risk that Portugal would have to seek foreign financial aid.
“The risk is high because we are not facing only a national or country problem,” he told the FT. “It is the problems of Greece, Portugal and Ireland. This is not a problem of only this country.”
He stressed subsequently, however, that Portugal had no immediate plans to ask for assistance.
The yield on Irish bonds – essentially IOUs sold by the government to fund state spending – traded lower on Monday, suggesting a slight easing of concerns.
Although Tuesday’s talks are routine, formal meeting of Eurozone ministers, the BBC’s Europe editor Gavin Hewitt said that high-level talks had already begun, involving European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and his economy commissioner Olli Rehn.
Brussels fears that any delay risks repeating the Greek crisis that earlier this year threatened the entire eurozone, he added.
“There would not be a banking system in Ireland – and therefore not an economy in any conventional sense – if it weren’t for the generosity of the European Central Bank in providing loans to Irish banks that the markets won’t provide”
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Some reports suggest that the Irish Republic could seek help for its banking sector alone, rather than asking for help at a government level.
This, say observers, would save them the embarrassment of being rescued by the EU and avoid greater involvement by Brussels in economic decisions.
The Irish government has all but nationalised the country’s banking system, which had lent recklessly to property developers at a cost of 45bn euros.
The government has consistently stated its determination to restore stability to the public finances and stressed that it was “fully funded” until 2011.
Meanwhile concerns persist about the state of the Greek economy, which received an EU bail-out worth up to 110bn euros.
European and IMF officials will be in the country this week to decide whether to release the final tranche of the money.
The scale of the problems still facing Greece were further underlined by the latest official European figures which showed that its budget deficit in 2009 was markedly higher than previously stated.
Since 2008, the Irish Republic has suffered a dramatic collapse of its property market.
House values have fallen between 50% and 60% and bad debts – mainly in the form of loans to developers – have built up in the country’s main banks, bringing them to the verge of collapse.
The country has promised the EU it will bring its underlying deficit down from 12% of economic output to 3% by 2014.
Its current deficit is an unprecedented 32% of gross domestic product, if the cost of bad debts in the Irish banking system is included.
The Irish government, which has a flimsy majority in parliament, is expected to publish another draconian budget on 7 December.
This will impose spending cuts or tax rises totalling 6bn euros to bring the deficit down to between 9.5-9.75% next year.
Investors fear the budget cuts are likely to worsen the country’s already deep recession, leading to further losses to the government via falling tax revenues and higher benefit payments.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
