The British Government has agreed an out-of-court settlement worth £1m in compensation for thirty-three Greek Cypriots who filed class action lawsuits of human rights abuses.

The claims, filed four years ago, included rape and torture, and the 33 will now receive the settlement sum for damages plus legal costs.

Bambos Charalambous, MP for Enfield Southgate, has been involved in the case with the Cypriots’ lawyers and has been supporting one of the 33 who is a constituent of Enfield Southgate.

Mr Charalambous said: “the murky history of British colonial forces in Cyprus has finally been recognised, but justice has not been done for those who have lived with the horrific memories of the human rights abuses they suffered. Recognition is only the start. An apology from the British Government is long overdue.”

Lawyer Christos Clerides said that the UK government had reached an out of court agreement with the ex-guerrillas to pay them compensation. The amount each claimant will receive will be assessed on the basis of damage to their health caused by torture.

He added legal costs, estimated at about 3 million pounds, will be assessed at a later stage.

The 33 claimants were among a larger group of people who claimed that they had been tortured while in detention during the 1955-1959 EOKA guerrilla campaign that led to the independence of Cyprus in 1960.

There were about 100 claimants, but after vetting their number was reduced to the 35 who could prove by hard evidence that they had been tortured. Two of them died during the hearing of the case, leaving only 33 claimants.

Claims of inhuman torture of those arrested were made during the guerrilla campaign, but Clerides said that hard evidence emerged only after documents of the British Ministries of Defence and Foreign Affairs were declassified.

The lawyers of the claimants were concerned that even if the torture claims were proved by evidence, the case could be lost on legal grounds, as the appeals court had accepted an application of the British government not to try the case under British law but rather under Cypriot law, which sets a very short time of limitation for the alleged crimes, Clerides said, pointing out that the alleged crimes were committed more than 60 years ago.

He added that the British government was concerned that even if it won the case on legal points, evidence of torture would be heard during the trial that would tarnish the country’s image.