 MANAMA - One of the six Bahrainis being held at the military prison on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is hospitalized and being force fed, according to his US lawyer.
Lawyer Joshua Colangelo-Bryan just returned from his fifth visit with the Bahraini detainees at the US-run detention centre. âI saw Isa Almurbati, and he has a huge feeding tube inserted into his nose,â Colangelo-Bryan, a member of the firm Dorsey & Whitney, said in a letter Tuesday to the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights. âHe has lost a tremendous amount of weight and looks exhausted. There is nothing to suggest that he will end this hunger strike.â
Colangelo-Bryan, who in late September revealed the five demands being made by the detainees in hunger strikes that began in July and August, wrote that he was concerned about his clientâs health.
During the lawyerâs last visit in August, he was unable to meet with Almurbati on the first day because he was hospitalized. When they met on the second day, the inmate already showed signs of fatigue from the hunger strike. âI did give to him photographs of his brother and myself from my visit to Bahrain last summer. I could tell from his face that he was pleased to see the photographs,â Colangelo-Bryan said in his letter, suggesting that Almurbati was unable to speak and that his health condition was serious, according to BCHR Vice President Nabeel Rajab.
At least two relatives of the Bahraini detainees are expected to arrive next month in London to describe the prisonersâ suffering at an international human rights conference, according to Rajab. He said that the limited access given to families through censored letters had served as harsh punishment against not only the detainees but also their relatives.
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The Bahraini press on Tuesday reported âpositive progressâ from recent talks between Bahraini Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Mohammed Abdul Ghaffar and US Ambassador William Monroe, and raising the possibility of the return of detainees.
US lawyers earlier this week accused US military medics in federal court of attempting to discourage the detainees from continuing their hunger strikes by inserting thick feeding tubes through their noses without using painkillers and claiming that they used recycled dirty feeding tubes used on other prisoners. Both charges were denied by US government lawyers.| The only anesthetic used generally is some 1% lidocaine gel. |
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