Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Former Guantanamo detainee tells of 'medieval' torture

A freed Guantanamo Bay prisoner has said conditions at the US detention camp in Cuba have worsened since President Barack Obama was elected, claiming guards wanted to "take their last revenge".

Binyam Mohamed, who became the first detainee to be transferred out of Guantanamo since Obama took office, also said British agents "sold me out" by cooperating with his alleged torturers, in his first interview since being released to be published on Sunday.

Mohamed, a 30-year-old Ethiopian-born former British resident, gave further details of what he called the "medieval" torture he faced in Pakistan and Morocco, as well as in a secret CIA prison in Kabul and at Guantanamo.

"The result of my experience is that I feel emotionally dead," he told the Mail on Sunday newspaper. "It seems like a miracle my brain is still intact."

Far from conditions at Guantanamo improving since Obama was elected in November, Mohamed said the situation there was worse now than before.

The US president had promised during his campaign to shut down the Guantanamo prison and two days after taking office announced it would close this year.

"Since the election it's got harsher," he told the newspaper. "The guards would say, 'yes, this place is going to close down,' but it was like they wanted to take their last revenge."

He also claimed the feared Emergency Reaction Force at Guantanamo, a team which he said punishes inmates in their cells and once almost gouged his eyes out when he declined to give his fingerprints, is now being used more often.

Mohamed said he was beaten at Guantanamo and also described mistreatment at other detention centres. He said his chest and penis were slashed with razors while he was held in Morocco. In Afghanistan he lived in constant darkness and "came close to insanity" after being forced to listen to the same album by rapper Eminem at top volume for a solid month.

http://www.theage.com.au/world/former-guantanamo-detainee-tells-of-medieval-torture-20090308-8s7n.html

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