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A
photo showing the infamous strappado torture technique.
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CAIRO,
January 2 (IslamOnline.net) – A British detainee held for years in
the notorious Guantanamo detention camp complained of having been
tortured by US jailers for reciting verses from the Noble Qur'an, a
leading British newspaper reported Sunday, January 2.
British
lawyer Clive Stafford Smith said one of his two clients, Moazzam Begg
and Richard Belmar, was tortured using “strappado,” a technique in
which prisoners are left suspended from a roof bar with handcuffs,
reported The Observer.
Shortly
before the Christmas, Smith drew up a 30-page report on the torture
methods used against his clients and sent it with a letter to British
Prime Minister Tony Blair.
He
spoke of “credible and consistent evidence” that both men have
been savagely tortured by the US jailers.
He
also wrote in his letter that Begg suffered not only physical but
“sexual abuse” which resulted in “mental health consequences.”
Amnesty
International published a report in last April, hitting out at
Washington’s violations of the rights of prisoners held in
Guantanamo and Afghanistan.
In
June, the Human Rights Watch issued a report entitled “The Road
To Abu Ghraib” linking the abuse of detainees in Iraq ,
Afghanistan and Guantanamo to the policies adopted by US President
George W. Bush in his so-called war on terror.
The
Abu Ghraib prison scandal outraged the world when several graphic
photos of Iraqi detainees tortured and sexually abused by
American soldiers became public.
Since
then, the scandal has been deepening, exposing more elements and
factors about interrogation techniques approved by US Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who came under domestic and international
pressure to step down.
