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Six Guantanamo Detainees Sue U.S. Citing Abuse

HeadlineApr 14, 2005

Lawyers in Boston representing six detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the U.S. government. The suit alleges widespread abuse and torture at the prison. All six detainees are Algerian nationals who were picked up in Bosnia and then taken to Guantanamo. One of the Algerian men alleges that U.S. military guards jumped on his head until he had a stroke that paralyzed his face. He also charged that the guards nearly drowned him in a toilet, broke several of his fingers and sprayed tear gas at him. The man — Mustafa Ait Idir — was accused of plotting with five others to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo in November 2001. All were acquitted by Bosnia’s highest court in January 2002, but U.S. agents arrested them anyway as they left the courthouse. They were eventually taken to Guantanamo Bay. At the time the U.S. was criticized for seizing the men after they were acquitted. The United Nations’ top human rights official in Bosnia said the arrest of the men undermined the respect for the rule of law, due process, and human rights. Madeleine Rees said “The United States is behaving like a rogue state.” At the time U.S. officials vowed the six detainees would be “treated humanely and according to international law.” The lawsuit filed Wednesday is the first effort to use the Freedom of Information Act to compel the Bush administration to disclose medical records and video recorded at Guantanamo.

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