UK defence ministry to pay compensation to victims of Libyan cadets' sex abuse

The UK Ministry of Defence has paid tens of thousands of pounds in compensation to the victims of sexual abuse by Libyan military cadets flown to the UK for training in 2014.

At least 300 cadets had been brought to the Bassingbourn barracks in Cambridgeshire following the fall of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in an operation that cost more than £13.9 million ($17mn).

A number of cadets left the barracks and on one weekend carried out a series of sexual attacks in Cambridge city.

Two cadets are serving 12-year sentences for raping a man, while three others received custodial sentences for sexually assaulting four teenage girls.

Lawyers representing the rape victim and one of the girls who was sexually assaulted argued that their human rights had been breached.

“I was subjected to a degrading attack by these men that has traumatised me," said one of the victims.

"I just hope that lessons are learned from what happened and nothing like this happens again.”

It emerged on Saturday that the MoD had agreed to pay damages to two victims in an out-of-court settlement, believed to amount to tens of thousands of pounds.

The first claimant was raped at night in the centre of Cambridge by Moktar Ali Saad Mahmoud and Ibrahim Abugtila.

The defendants had denied attacking the man but were caught on CCTV leading him to a park. The two were jailed in May 2015.

Adel Akari, one of the Libyan Army officers in charge of the operation, said at the time of the attacks that "a number of the men have never been out of their home towns, let alone Libya. Some from the remote towns have never seen a girl other than their mother.

"Only animals would do what they did. They shamed us, and we are disgusted. If the men are returned to Libya they will return to hell."

Akari told MEE that other attempts to reinforce Libya's army in Italy and Turkey had also ended badly. "There were sexual harassment complaints on these two trips as well," he said.

There were high hopes the visit to the UK would end differently. "We put a lot of effort into ensuring this all goes to plan," said Akari, while expressing his disappointment with the British authorities, saying that he felt they had not done enough to stop such attacks.

"We [the Libyan government] had explained what happened in the last two trips [to Italy and Turkey] and I expressed concern, but it was not taken seriously by the British Army or government," Akari said.

The MoD said that they had "previously expressed regret that there were things we could have done better with this programme".