Guantanamo Bay prisoners 'tortured and humiliated' say lawyers

1.00pm - By ANDREW BUNCOMBE and NIGEL MORRIS

Prisoners at Guantanamo Bay were subjected to Abu Ghraib-style torture and sexual humiliation in which they were stripped naked, forced to sodomise one another and taunted by naked female US soldiers, according to a new report.

Some of the abuse has been captured on videotape. Based on the testimony of former prisoners, including three Britons, the report details a brutal yet carefully choreographed regime at the US prison camp in which abuse was meted out in a manner judged to have the "maximum impact".

Those prisoners with the most conservative Muslim backgrounds were the most likely to be subjected to sexual humiliation and abuse while those from Westernised backgrounds were more likely to suffer solitary confinement and physical mistreatment.

In addition to the sexual and physical humiliation, the report also details how prisoners had their religion mocked.

"There was a clear policy to try to force people to abandon their religious faith," says one extract of the report, obtained by The Independent.

Including testimony from doctors who examined and spoke with the prisoners after they were released, the report also details how prisoners were injected with unknown drugs during interrogation sessions and were told they would only receive medicine if they cooperated with interrogators.

Last night Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said: "These allegations make profoundly unpleasant reading. If they are true, they demonstrate a level of behaviour far short of what is acceptable. The American authorities said that the Geneva Conventions did not apply Guantanamo Bay, but nevertheless they abide by their terms. It seems they have signally failed to do so and one can't help drawing a parallel with what happened at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad."

Five British prisoners were released without charge from Guantanamo Bay last March and freed within a day by the British authorities. Another four remain - Feroz Abbasi, Moazzam Begg, Martin Mubanga and Richard Belmar.

Three British residents, Bisher al-Rawi, Jamil al-Banna and Jamal Abdullah, are also being held there. It is understood that two of the British prisoners, Mr Begg and Mr Abbasi, have been held in total isolation for more than a year.

The abuse detailed in the report, compiled by a group of British and American lawyers and being released today in New York by the Centre for Constitutional Rights, is likely to trigger fresh outrage about the way the US military treats prisoners.

Investigators are currently examining allegations of widespread abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prisoner west of Baghdad in which male prisoners were abused, tortured and sexually humiliated by their US guards.

Investigators are also looking into the deaths of a number of prisoners in the custody of the US military.

One factor which links Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib is General Geoffrey Miller, the former commander of Guantanamo Bay who left to take charge of Abu Ghraib in August 2003.

Mr Miller reportedly told his staff in Iraq that his intention was to turn the prison into an intelligence hub and "Gitmoize" the operation.

The details included in the new report - which also alleges that British intelligence officials were involved in the interrogation not just of British prisoners but those from countries including France, Belgium, Denmark and Bosnia - match up with allegations that released prisoners have made elsewhere.

Earlier this week the French newspaper Liberation detailed claims by two French former prisoners who said they been physically and sexually abused, urinated on and refused medical treatment while being held at the prison, located on a US naval base on the south-east coast of Cuba.

Nizar Sassi and Mourad Benchellali said half-naked women interrogated detainees from Middle Eastern origins, who were also forced to watch pornographic movies.

Yesterday another former British detainee at Guantanamo Bay alleged he had been interrogated for hours on end while chained like a dog to a metal ring in the floor.

In a sworn statement, Tarek Dergoul said he had been beaten, tied up "like a beast", sprayed with pepper gun and had his head forced down the toilet. He claimed the brutality was recorded on video camera.

Mr Dergoul, one of the Britons released in March, said he was repeatedly attacked by a punishment squad known as the Extreme Reaction Force during his 22-month detention without charge.

The Foreign Office said yesterday no allegations of ill-treatment had been passed to British officials when they visited inmates in Guantanamo Bay but said it had asked the Pentagon to investigate.

"We have asked them to examine the allegations and they have undertaken to," he said.

The Bush administration has refused to afford prisoners at Guantanamo Bay the rights laid out by the Geneva Conventions. The Pentagon routinely denies that any prisoners have been abused at the camp.

- INDEPENDENT

Centre for Constitutional Rights (NY):
Composite report: Detention in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay [PDF 115 pages]