Guantanamo detainee condemns US for punitive action
http://archive.gulfnews.com/region/Bahrain/10129121.html
06/01/2007 12:29 AM | By Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief
Manama: A Bahraini detained at the Guantanamo prison has condemned the US authorities for taking “horrible” punitive action against a mentally disturbed captive, accusing them of showing no mercy for his case.
Juma Al Dossari, one of two Bahrainis held at the isolated US Navy base in southeast Cuba, described to his lawyer how the anti-riot squad was behaving brutally with an Algerian detainee, Abdul Rahman, who was too deranged to understand the rules.
Guantanamo detainee condemns US for punitive action
http://archive.gulfnews.com/region/Bahrain/10129121.html
06/01/2007 12:29 AM | By Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief
Manama: A Bahraini detained at the Guantanamo prison has condemned the US authorities for taking “horrible” punitive action against a mentally disturbed captive, accusing them of showing no mercy for his case.
Juma Al Dossari, one of two Bahrainis held at the isolated US Navy base in southeast Cuba, described to his lawyer how the anti-riot squad was behaving brutally with an Algerian detainee, Abdul Rahman, who was too deranged to understand the rules.
“Juma spoke about an Algerian detainee who is being held near him in the Mental Health Unit and who suffers from a serious injury to his brain and is not coherent.
“Juma said that Abdul Rahman 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 and 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, Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, said yesterday in a statement conveyed to Gulf News by rights activist Nabeel Rajab.
Guards
The New-York-based lawyer said that Abdul Rahman was not able to understand or follow all of the rules in the Mental Health Unit, prompting the military staff to take his comfort items from him.
“When that happens, Juma pleads with the guards not to punish someone who cannot understand the rules for breaking them. Juma tells them to have a little mercy because they cannot judge him like they judge other detainees. But Juma’s cries for mercy never bring any changes,” Colangelo-Bryan said.
“At times, Juma has given back his few comfort items, such as a book, to protest the treatment of Abdul Rahman. After all, there is nothing else that he can do.”
Quoting a Guantanamo nurse who claimed in an interview that the detainees were enemy combatants and not patients, Colangelo-Bryan said that “this attitude certainly explains a lot about the treatment of detainees, including those in the Mental Health Unit”.
On Tuesday, the Centre for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based human rights group, blamed the conditions of the prisoners for the latest suicide at Guantanamo, saying that “the legal black hole of Guantanamo is an unconscionable mistake”.