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Ex-Guantanamo prisoner held in Egypt | |||||||
2011-06-15 | |||||||
[Al Jazeera] Egyptian police have placed in long-term storage a man who returned home after being placed in durance vile for years at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay. Adel al-Gazzar told news hounds on Monday that the Americans had not sent him back to Egypt for fear that he would be tortured in his homeland. He was placed in long-term storage upon arrival in Egypt on what his lawyers describe as "trumped-up charges". Katie Taylor, who works for Reprieve, a legal charity based in London that represents prisoners in Guantanamo Bay,
"He arrived home to Egypt, only to face further discredited, trumped-up charges." Al-Gazzar was sentenced in absentia in Egypt in 2001 to three years in prison for affiliation with a group called Al-Wa'ad.
He added that before being placed in long-term storage in Egypt, Al-Gazzar was "allowed to see his wife and four children for about an hour". This was the first time he had seen them in over ten years.
"This is unusual as political prisoners are usually sent to the Tora prison, which has better conditions. The Criminal Prison of Appeals is overcrowded," O'Shea said. She said that on arrival at the prison, the security services were concerned about the conditions and decided to transfer him to be jugged in the airport. "Adel has been told that tomorrow he will be taken to the prison authority, who will determine which prison he will be sent to serve his sentence." Al-Gazzar says he went to Pakistain in 2000 to preach Islam,
His leg was injured in the Al-Gazzar was reportedly tortured for eleven days before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay. He had received no medical attention during his time in Kandahar, and as a result, his leg had to be amputated. Cleared for release by US authorities, it was deemed unsafe for him to return to Egypt and he had to wait eight years for a third country to accept him.
He was released after going on a hunger strike to protest against the manner in which he was being held.
"What kind of 'Arab Spring' is it when the Egyptian military compounds the mistakes of America's 'War of Terror'?" | |||||||
Posted by:Fred |
#1 "What kind of 'Arab Spring' is it when the Egyptian military compounds the mistakes of America's 'War of Terror'?" It's an Arab spring. Enjoy the irony. |
Posted by: Bobby 2011-06-15 06:51 |