A significant portion of the 270 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are held in unnecessarily harsh conditions that could result in long-term psychological damage, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report on Tuesday.
As many as 185 of the detainees at the US “war on terror” facility are isolated in cells for 22 hours each day, with limited contact with others and nothing to occupy their time except for a Koran, the report said.
The detainees’ two hours of recreational time takes place in “single cell cages” and is sometimes allotted during the night, HRW said.
The conditions are similar to those found in ultratight security “supermax” prisons, “even though they have not yet been convicted of a crime,” the report said.
“Continuing to house detainees in single-cell units 22 hours a day with virtually nothing to do all day long and no access to natural light or fresh air is not just cruel, it may be counterproductive,” it said.
The 54-page report is based on interviews with government officials and attorneys and recounts the experiences of around a dozen prisoners, some of whom have been cleared for release after six years in detention but cannot find a host country to take them.
“It is unwise and short-sighted to warehouse them in conditions that may have a damaging psychological impact and are very likely to breed hatred and resentment of the United States over the long term,” said Jennifer Daskal, HRW senior counterterrorism counsel.
The report cited “numerous studies” that have found “that extended periods of detention in supermax-like conditions can cause significant psychiatric harm.
“The absence of social and environmental stimulation has been found to lead to a range of mental health problems, ranging from insomnia and confusion to hallucinations and psychosis,” it said.
In related news, the lawyer of a Guantanamo inmate said on Tuesday the US government had photographic evidence of his client being tortured with a knife after being taken to Morocco by US forces.
British legal aid group Reprieve said their client, Binyam Mohamed, had his genitals slashed repeatedly with a doctor’s scalpel while in custody in Morocco after he was flown there from Pakistan by US officials in 2002. It also said his US captors later took pictures of the abuse to show authorities that his wounds were healing.
Mohamed, an Ethiopian national and former British resident, is charged by the US with plotting with al-Qaeda to bomb US apartment buildings.
Reprieve maintains the charge is based on a confession taken under duress, explaining that Mohamed was a victim of rendition — the name given to the secret transfer of prisoners from US control into the hands of foreign governments.
Reprieve said it knew there was proof Mohamed was tortured while in foreign hands. It quoted him as saying that an American female photographed his wounds before he boarded a plane in the Moroccan city of Rabat on the night of Jan. 21, 2004.
The CIA declined to comment on Reprieve’s claims.
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