British Guantanamo detainee details abuse claims

A British man held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba says he was shackled so long he wet himself and was forced to clean up his own urine, the Guardian newspaper reported today.

Martin Mubanga, 31, said an interrogator had stood on his hair and he was subjected to extreme temperatures rising to 36 degrees centigrade (97F).

The alleged abuse of Mubanga, one of four Britons held at the camp, was detailed in a letter from Britain's Foreign Office to the prisoner's family, the paper said.

The allegations were made by Mubanga to a Foreign Office official during a welfare visit in June.

"Martin told the official ... he had been interrogated, shacked and not allowed to go to the toilet," the paper quoted the letter as reading.

"He said he had wet himself and had been forced to clean up the mess himself. Martin said that in another incident in June, he had been put in a room with the temperature at 97F ... he knew the temperature because he saw the dial."

The letter continued: "Martin said that there had been a struggle and he had had his hair stood on by the interrogator."

In a later visit by a Foreign Office official on October 3, Mubanga was shackled by his feet to the floor for the entire 60 minutes of the interview, the paper said, citing an official record of the meeting.

Mubanga, from London and a former motorcycle courier, was arrested in Zambia in 2002.

His allegations echo those made earlier this year in a letter by another British Guantanamo prisoner, Moazzam Begg, who said he had been tortured and abused during his detention.

More than 600 people have been held without charge or access to lawyers at Guantanamo, some for more than two years.

The prison camp was set up in January 2002 to hold combatants captured in Afghanistan and others suspected of association with al Qaeda.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman told Reuters: "We have raised with the US authorities the allegations of maltreatment raised with us by Mr Mubanga during a welfare visit.

"The US authorities have investigated them and their response is that they are without merit.

"Our position about the Guantanamo detainees remains that in the absence of the prospect of a free trial they should be returned to the UK," she added.

- REUTERS