Juma’s mercy plea for fellow detainee
By Geoffrey bew
Published: 1 June 2007
DESPITE suffering terrible conditions in Guantanamo Bay, Bahraini detainee Juma Al Dossary has pleaded with US authorities to show mercy to an Algerian captive held near his own cell.
After his latest visit to the Cuba-based facility, legal team head Joshua Colangelo-Bryan said the 33-year-old did not mention his own situation, but expressed anxiety about the other captive held near him in the mental health unit.
He told the GDN his client had given back some of his few comfort items, such as a book, in protest at the treatment of Abdul and often pleads with the guards to show mercy on him.
Juma’s mercy plea for fellow detainee
By Geoffrey bew
Published: 1 June 2007
DESPITE suffering terrible conditions in Guantanamo Bay, Bahraini detainee Juma Al Dossary has pleaded with US authorities to show mercy to an Algerian captive held near his own cell.
After his latest visit to the Cuba-based facility, legal team head Joshua Colangelo-Bryan said the 33-year-old did not mention his own situation, but expressed anxiety about the other captive held near him in the mental health unit.
He told the GDN his client had given back some of his few comfort items, such as a book, in protest at the treatment of Abdul and often pleads with the guards to show mercy on him.
“Juma said that Abdul suffers from a serious injury to his brain and is not coherent,” said Mr Colangelo-Bryan.
“Juma said that Abdul once walked around his very small cell for three days without stopping or eating.
“Then, he froze as if in a spasm.
“Military personnel wanted to take Abdul to the hospital but he would not move. An anti-riot team was called, which removed Abdul from his cell by force. Juma listened in horror to the noise from Abdul’s cell when the anti-riot team entered.”
The lawyer said Juma had told him at times Abdul was not able to understand or follow all of the rules in the unit and the military takes his comfort items from him as a result.
“Juma pleads with the guards not to punish someone who can’t understand the rules for breaking them ,” he said.
“‘Have a little mercy’, Juma says. ‘You can’t judge him like you would judge other detainees’.”
Mr Colangelo-Bryan believes the way prisoners are treated in the camp has a lot to do with their state of mind.
“Recently, an interview with Guantanamo medical staff was published in the US in which a nurse said of the detainees, ‘They’re not patients, they’re enemy combatants’,” he said.
“This attitude certainly explains a lot about the treatment of detainees.”
The other Bahraini being held in Guantanamo Bay is Isa Al Murbati, 41, who is being kept in Camp six.
Both men have been kept at the Cuba-based prison for more than five years without charge or trial.
Three other Bahrainis, Adel Kamel Hajee, Abdulla Al Nuaimi and Shaikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, were released from Guantanamo in November 2005, while Salah Al Blooshi was released from custody and returned to Bahrain in October last year.
geoff@gdn.com.bh
© Gulf Daily News