Photos published for the first time; atrocious methods of torture in Guantanamo

Photos published for the first time; atrocious methods of torture in Guantanamo

    2:23 PM   No comments

Although many years have passed since the establishment of the Guantanamo prison, amid the international and human rights criticisms that surrounded this prison located in Guantanamo Bay in the far southeast of Cuba, the mystery still surrounds many of the methods of torture that were practiced behind its closed cells.

However, a detainee there, called "Abu Zubaydah", presented for the first time dozens of drawings that he wrote with her hand about the methods of torture he was subjected to in this American detention camp, as part of what was known as the CIA torture program after September 11.

And those drawings, which numbered 40 live now, constituted the most comprehensive and detailed account of the brutal methods he was subjected to at the hands of the CIA, between 2002 and 2006, according to what was reported by the British newspaper, The Guardian.

 

It also prompted the United Nations to demand his release, stressing that these methods are inconsistent with all international laws.

 
Rape and drowning

The pictures that Abu Zubayda wrote and later sent to one of his lawyers, Professor Mark Denbeaux, showed horrific acts of violence, sexual and racial insults, and prolonged psychological terror to which the detainees were subjected.

 

The aforementioned lawyer, along with his students at the Center for Policy and Research at Seton Hall Law School, collected Zubayda's photos and testimonies in a comprehensive report on torture in this notorious prison and other secret intelligence detention centers.

 

Denbeaux said: "Abu Zubayda is the first victim of the American torture program, after it was approved by the US Department of Justice based on facts that the CIA knew were wrong," as he put it.

 

It is noteworthy that Abu Zubayda, 52, was arrested in Pakistan in March 2002, then he was transferred between several secret intelligence locations, whether in Poland or Lithuania, and others, until he landed in Guantanamo in 2006, where he has been detained since then without Prosecution or proof of his involvement in any crime.

coffin

His meticulously drawn images showed masked agents physically threatening him with rape.

 It also showed other violent methods of torture and force-feeding, as well as holding the detainee in a coffin-like place and dousing it with water, or placing headphones on his ears and raising the volume to the maximum extent that a human mind can bear.

 It showed how the man in his fifties was tied with iron chains naked in front of his interrogators, some of whom were female, in order to humiliate him.

 He was also subjected to simulated drowning 83 times.

 About that experience, he wrote to his lawyer, "I was terrified of drowning all day."

 According to the 2014 Senate report summary, at least 119 individuals have fallen victim to this horrific program at Guantanamo.

 

Bahrain: Death Sentences Follow Torture, Sham Trials; Court Records Show Pervasive Rights Violations

Bahrain: Death Sentences Follow Torture, Sham Trials; Court Records Show Pervasive Rights Violations

    2:13 AM   No comments

(Beirut) – Bahraini courts have convicted and sentenced defendants to death following manifestly unfair trials, based solely or primarily on confessions allegedly coerced through torture and ill-treatment, Human Rights Watch and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy said in a joint report released today.

The 61-page report, “‘The Court is Satisfied with the Confession’: Bahrain Death Sentences Follow Torture, Sham Trials,” based primarily on court records and other official documents, found serious and persistent human rights violations underlying the convictions and death sentences of cases of eight men examined for the report. The men are among 26 who are currently on death row, their appeals exhausted. Trial and appeal courts cavalierly dismissed credible allegations of torture and ill-treatment during interrogation instead of investigating them, as required by international and Bahraini law. The courts routinely violated defendants’ rights to fair trials, including the right to legal counsel during interrogation, the right to cross-examine prosecution witnesses, and through reliance on secretly sourced reports.

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