Ex-Guantanamo Prisoner Plans Lawsuit Against U.S. Government
Al Alam and Abu Dhabi Television, News Report, Compiled by Jalal Ghazi for Link TV, Posted: Nov 24, 2003
The first Pakistani released from the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo, Cuba is demanding financial compensation for the time that he was mistakenly imprisoned at the facility after his arrest in Afghanistan.
Muhamad Sagheer, a preacher, is demanding $10.4 million for the mistreatment he was subjected to at the prison camp located on a U.S. naval base. He told a news conference that the ordeal resulted in the loss of his job and emotional and financial suffering for his family.
According to Iran's Al-Alam television, which broadcast a news conference that Sagheer held, different lawyers and humanitarian organizations are trying to support him and adopt his case. He submitted his claims to the U.S. federal government, but has not received an answer yet.
Sagheer is a Pakistani citizen who went to Afghanistan with a religious group called "Al Tabligh." The organization is not involved in politics; it only preaches people to believe in God, according to the Al-Alam on-air reporter.
He was arrested on Nov. 11, 2001 and released the same month a year later.
He tells a story about when he was being held in Afghanistan and placed in a closed container, where he witnessed with his own eyes the death of 50 people from a lack of oxygen, water and food. At one point, he was transferred to the prison in Cuba, where the U.S. has a naval base and is holding over 600 detainees from its war on terror.
"They did not allow us to pray," Sagheer told Al-Alam television. "They shaved our heads, kept us from sleeping and put us in cold rooms as a kind of punishment. When they realized that I have no relations with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, they released me and gave me 100 U.S. dollars. I was jailed without a court hearing and the rest of the prisoners have not been tried yet. That is a great injustice.”
The Pakistani government is trying to get dozens more prisoners released from Guanatanamo prison, but the U.S. administration has not been very cooperative. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take a case to evaluate the right of the Guantanamo prisoners to legal hearings in the U.S. court system, but that will not happen until next year.
According to Abu Dhabi Television, two British citizens, two Australians and twelve Kuwaitis are also suing the U.S. government, saying that their detention violates international laws and regulations.
In Guantanamo, there are over 650 detainees from more than 40 countries, including a 90-year-old man and a 13-year-old child. The detainees are being held in jails that resemble warrens of cages.
All these detainees, who are described as illegal combatants, remain under the direct jurisdiction of the U.S. Defense Department, says Abu Dhabi Television.
The on-air reporter for the satellite channel, one of the most popular in the Arab world, says the terminology of "illegal combatant" was invented as away to justify stripping the detainees of their rights granted to prisoners of war by the Geneva Convention.
U.S. officials continue trying to justify the situation in Guantanamo although it violates international law and the basic principles of human rights, the Abu Dhabi reporter says.
If the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to take the case, that might provide President Bush’s Administration with a solution to the moral and legal dilemma that it has put itself into by establishing the prison camp.
An exit from this dilemma is especially important now as Bush preaches to countries in the region giving lessons on democracy and human rights, the Abu Dhabi reporter concludes.
NCM Coverage: The Middle East
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