Tony Blair has accused the Daily Mail of "utter hypocrisy" in its coverage of a British man thought to have carried out a suicide attack for ISIS this week.
The front page of the Mail on Wednesday led with claims that Jamal al-Harith received £1 million worth of compensation from the UK government after his release from Guantanamo Bay in 2004.
But a Daily Mail spokesperson told Press Gazette that it was "monstrous" to accuse the newspaper of hypocrisy.
In a rare statement issued days after his Brexit intervention, former prime minister Blair pointed out Harith's compensation was actually secured by the Conservative government in 2010, specifically by then-home secretary Theresa May.
“I would not normally respond to daily stories about events which happened during my time in office but on this occasion I will do so, given the utter hypocrisy with which this story is being covered," Blair said.
Tony Blair response to Jamal al-Harith story: https://t.co/DKgYeEnvAS
He said the release of Harith, born Ronald Fiddler, in 2004 was campaigned for and welcomed by the Mail.
"It is correct that Jamal al-Harith was released from Guantanamo Bay at the request of the British government in 2004. This followed a massive media and parliamentary campaign, led by the Daily Mail, the very paper that is now supposedly so outraged at his release and strongly supported by the then Conservative opposition.
"The Mail headline shortly after he was released after months of their campaigning was 'Freedom At Last for Guantanamo Britons'. They then quoted with approval various human rights activists saying ‘clearly by what's happened they're not bad guys, they are entirely innocent."
At the time of Harith's return to the UK in 2004, the Mail ran several stories marking his release, under headlines such as "Freed to go straight home", "They're out", and "How I was humiliated and tortured in Camp X-Ray", the latter being an alternative name for Guantanamo Bay.
One Mail story published on 10 March quoted Harith's solicitor Robert Lizar as saying:
"He's looking forward to seeing his family very much.
"However, he wants the US authorities to answer for the injustice which he has suffered. He has been detained as an innocent for a two years. He has been treated in a cruel, inhumane and degrading manner he wants the authorities to answer for that.
"He believes that the UK authorities have also been complicit in terms of being involved in questioning him while in detention and allowing that to continue.
"He would like also to point out that the conditions under which he has suffered for that period of time are still being suffered by others in detention.
"He would urge everybody who is concerned about those matters to raise them with the US and UK authorities as soon as possible. He's an innocent man."
And an editorial titled "The shame of Guantanamo Bay" on 11 March said:
"For more than two years, Jamal al-Harith was immured in Guantanamo Bay, in 'horrific' conditions. Hours after arriving in Britain, he was released without being charged with any offence.
"Last night, the four other Britons captured in Afghanistan and flown home this week were also allowed to leave Paddington Green police station.
"That leaves four more still in Camp X-Ray, though the outside world doesn't know why.
"What on earth is going on?
"This paper holds no torch for terrorists or their sympathisers. If a legitimate case can be proven against any of these men, they deserve everything they get.
"But this affair is shameful in its every aspect: shameful for America, which is trampling on its own proud tradition of law; shameful for Britain, which has tamely acquiesced; shameful in the message it sends to the world."
In his statement, Blair said: "The fact is that this was always a very difficult situation where any government would have to balance proper concern for civil liberties with desire to protect our security, and we were likely to be attacked whatever course we took. The reason it did take a long time for their release was precisely the anxiety over their true affiliations."
He added that "those who demanded their release should not be allowed to get away with now telling us that it is a scandal that it happened."
A spokesperson for the former PM's office clarified that while the headline "Still Think He Wasn’t A Danger, Mr Blair? Fury at Labour government’s £1m compensation for innocent Brit" actually appears on a Sun online article and not the Mail, a similar headline did appear on the Mail's website.
In 2002 Manchester-born Harith, 50, was found by US forces in a jail in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where he had been detained by the Taliban for crossing into the country from Pakistan.
He was then taken to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where he spent the next two years. Upon his return to the UK he faced no charges.
This week ISIS claimed that a man called Abu-Zakariya al-Britani had carried out a suicide attack on Iraqi soldiers southwest of Mosul, and last night it was reported that the man was Harith.
The Daily Mail said it stood by its story from Wednesday.
“It is utterly wrong to accuse the Daily Mail newspaper of inaccuracy over the Ronald Fiddler story," a spokesperson said, in a lengthy response to Press Gazette.
“However, our sister organisation Mail Online, which is an independently edited website, did publish a misleading headline which said that Mr Blair’s government was responsible for the £1 million payout to Fiddler.
“This ran briefly and has since been removed and corrected. MailOnline apologises for this mistake."
The Mail's full response was:
“It is utterly wrong to accuse the Daily Mail newspaper of inaccuracy over the Ronald Fiddler story. Indeed, we stand by our story.
“However, our sister organisation Mail Online, which is an independently edited website, did publish a misleading headline which said that Mr Blair’s government was responsible for the £1million payout to Fiddler.
“This ran briefly and has since been removed and corrected. MailOnline apologises for this mistake.
“However, to accuse the Daily Mail newspaper of hypocrisy in this case is monstrous.
“The Mail has been utterly consistent in its condemnation of Guantanamo Bay, arguing that extraordinary rendition, torture, and locking up people and holding them for years on end without trial was morally wrong.
“All of this happened under Tony Blair’s regime – as did the release of Ronald Fiddler, with the then Home Secretary’s assurance that the detainee’s return would not ‘be a threat to the security of the British people’.
“At the same time, we have always made clear that those detained may have been very bad men – but that did not mean they were not entitled to justice and a fair trial.
“When Fiddler returned to Britain our editorial – raising the spectre that he may be a hardened terrorist – declared: ‘This paper holds no torch for terrorists or their sympathisers. If a legitimate case can be proven against any of these men, they deserve everything they get.’
“That remains wholeheartedly our position.
“The decision to pay Fiddler £1million was, as was accurately reported in this morning’s Daily Mail newspaper, made in 2010 by the Coalition Government – to avoid an embarrassing court battle which would have revealed the Blair Government’s complicity in rendition and torture.
“The fact remains that the actions which led to this payment were all the responsibility of Tony Blair.”