4-16-05, 8:43 am

US Naval Base in Guantánamo: Prisoner suffers facial paralysis after being tortured

From Granma

WASHINGTON4—THE US jailers in Guantánamo Bay beat a Bosnian detainee so badly that he suffered facial paralysis, and stuck his head in a toilet, flushing repeatedly until he almost drowned, according to a lawsuit filed on Wednesday. According to a Reuters cable, the lawsuit filed against the George W. Bush government in a US district court in Boston details the vicious beatings received by the Algerian-born prisoner Mustafa Ait Idir, in the US prison on its naval base in Guantánamo, Cuba.

The United States has been holding him in Guantánamo as an “enemy combatant” since January of 2002 without bringing any charges. Some 540 prisoners are being held at the prison.

The lawsuit was filed by lawyers for six prisoners in Guantánamo as part of a strategy questioning the legality of their detention. They are asking the court to compel the government to provide documents, medical histories and videotapes from prison monitoring cameras, as requested under the Freedom of Information Act.

The men were detained in Bosnia after a request by the U.S. in October of 2001, alleging they were planning attacks against the US and British embassies in Sarajevo. They were then handed over to the US authorities.

According to the lawsuit, on one occasion, prison guards entered Ait Idir’s cell, tied his hands behind his back, 'picked him up and slammed his body and his head into the steel bunk in his cell.'

The guards beat him even harder, the document adds.
'The guards picked him up again, stuffed Mr. Ait Idir's face in the toilet and repeatedly pressed the flush button. Mr. Ait Idir was starting to suffocate and he feared he would drown,' it states.

After pulling him out of his cell, it continues, 'They held him down and pushed a garden hose into his mouth. They opened the spigot. As the water rushed in, Mr. Ait Idir began to choke. The water was coming out of his mouth and nose.'

The lawsuit regarding torture also said that in early 2004, prison guards ordered detainees to surrender their pants, which Muslims must wear during prayers.

When they refused, members of an “Immediate Response Force” entered the cell to force Ait Idir to do so, the lawsuit says. 'He was sprayed in the face with chemical irritant, and one IRF member squeezed Mr. Ait Idir's testicles until he fell to the ground in a fetal position.'

According to the document, jailers jumped on top of him repeatedly and slowly bent his fingers backwards until they broke one.

Days later, the lawsuit reads, jailers sprayed him in the face with the chemical again, and threw him, tied up, onto a floor of crushed stones.

One of the guards jumped on top of the side of his head with his full body weight.

After the beating, Ait Idir suffered a stroke, and on side of his face was left paralyzed.