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| Posted: 16 Apr 2009 16:34 | ||
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Administrator Currently Offline |
Posts: 563 Join Date: Dec 2008 |
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The US state department has refused to comment on a claim that guards at Guantanamo Bay prison camp abused a Chadian prisoner held there.
Al Jazeera reported on Tuesday that Mohammad al-Qurani had been beaten and tear-gassed by guards after Barack Obama, the US president, pledged to end abuse at the camp in January. Al-Qurani made the call to Sami al-Hajj, an Al Jazeera cameraman who was himself held at Guantanamo Bay for more than six years. Al Jazeera's Monica Villamizar said authorities at Guantanamo Bay confirmed to her that al-Qurani would be punished for making the call but did not say how. Navy Lieutenant-Commander Brook DeWalt, a Guantanamo spokesman, said: "I can tell you that detainees are allowed weekly phone calls, detainees provide their family names and phone numbers. "If a prisoner called someone not a relative, that would be in violation of policy." The call is believed to be the first made from Guantanamo Bay to a media organisation by an inmate. Al-Qurani said he ended up with a broken tooth after one incident of tear-gassing and beating. Dewalt said the authorities at Guantanamo had no evidence to support al-Qurani's claims. In January a US judge ordered the release of al-Qurani, who was only 15-years-old when he was captured in Pakistan in 2001, after saying there was no evidence to justify his detention. He is currently in a separate camp in Guantanamo called Camp Iguana, where prisoners go after they have been approved for release before being transfered. Cory Crider, a member of al-Qurani's legal team, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday it was hard to ascertain how al-Qurani had been treated in recent months as the situation varied from camp to camp within the facility and also there had been "ramping up" of secrecy in the new administration. However, Crider said the last time she saw al-Qurani before his transfer to Camp Iguana she had seen abrasions on his hands "that I don't really think he did himself". "I think that where he is now is a significant, significant improvement over where he was before but there's no question ... that over the years this kid has been seriously mistreated," she said. |
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