CAIRO — The British government issued an apology on Thursday to a Libyan dissident and his wife for its role in a C.I.A. abduction in 2004 that landed them in Libya, where the man was tortured by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s security forces and imprisoned for six years. “We are profoundly sorry for the ordeal that you both suffered and our role in it,” Mrs. May said. Mr. Belhaj is a former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which tried to overthrow Colonel Qaddafi in the 1990s. In 2004, he and his wife, who was four months pregnant, were detained in Malaysia based on a tip by British intelligence operatives who told their American counterparts that the couple were suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda.

Source: New York Times May 10, 2018 22:14 UTC