Detainee punished for sharing meal
By GEOFFRE BEW
Published: 21 December 2006
A BAHRAINI detainee in Guantanamo Bay was stripped of some privileges and made to wear an orange suit as punishment for sharing his food with a prisoner, his lawyers have told the GDN.
Representatives of Isa Al Murbati said guards forced him to wear the outfit after he gave up part of a meal to another detainee who was hungry, a violation of the rules.
Legal team head Joshua Colangelo-Bryan only discovered the incident during his last visit to the prison camp.
“Isa said that if the guards believe a detainee has violated camp rules, the detainee is sent to isolation immediately,” he said.
Detainee punished for sharing meal
By GEOFFRE BEW
Published: 21 December 2006
A BAHRAINI detainee in Guantanamo Bay was stripped of some privileges and made to wear an orange suit as punishment for sharing his food with a prisoner, his lawyers have told the GDN.
Representatives of Isa Al Murbati said guards forced him to wear the outfit after he gave up part of a meal to another detainee who was hungry, a violation of the rules.
Legal team head Joshua Colangelo-Bryan only discovered the incident during his last visit to the prison camp.
“Isa said that if the guards believe a detainee has violated camp rules, the detainee is sent to isolation immediately,” he said.
“If a violation of rules is said to be minor, then the guards simply take everything from the detainee except the detainee’s sleeping mat.
“Sometimes, the guards will also make the detainee wear an orange suit.”
Mr Colangelo-Bryan said due to that kind of treatment Mr Al Murbati, 41, tries to avoid the guards and focuses on reading and praying.
He said the detainee tries to exercise in an attempt to ease discomfort he feels in his knee and shoulder from when he was forcibly moved off a hunger strike last December.
He also revealed guards sometimes only allow detainees to exercise in the middle of the night.
Mr Colangelo-Bryan says Mr Al Murbati often does not go as it is too late, but even if he does not, he is forced to wake up for his cell to be searched.
The prisoner is one of two Bahrainis still being held at the Cuba-based facility.
He is being kept at Camp 1, allegedly the highest security section at the prison, after being forced off hunger strike.
Juma Al Dossary, 32, reportedly suffers from a variety of health problems and according to the US military has tried to kill himself 13 times.
He is being held in isolation at the prison camp’s mental health unit.
Both men are approaching their fifth year 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 last year, while Salah Al Blooshi was released from custody and returned to Bahrain in October this year.
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