Bahrainis Still Being Tortured in Guantanamo

[DaSangarTalib]

From Hemu Gorde

MANAMA — The three Bahraini detainees at Guantanamo Bay are still being tortured, and with the fate and the date of the verdict on the Detainee Treatment Act is not clear and since the legal battle may take years considering the slow legal process in the US, diplomatic dialogue would be the best possible way for a comparatively early release, lawyers representing the detainees said here yesterday.[/I]


In November 2005, the US authorities released only three Bahraini detainees — Shaikh Sulman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, Adel Kamel Haji and Abdulla Majid Al Nuaimi — as free men after a series of negotiations by the kingdom's government with the concerned US authorities, while holding the other three Bahrainis at Bay prison in Cuba.

Addressing a Press conference organised by the Amnesty International (Bahrain) in the presence of its representative Nabeel Rajab, the US lawyers also noted that the remaining three Bahraini detainees — Juma Mohammed Al Dossary, Isa Al Murbati and Salah Abdulrasool Al Balooshi — are undergoing extreme mental and physical torture, so much so that Al Dossary has attempted suicide attempts several times while Isa had been forced to end his hunger strike to avoid further unbearable physical torture.

The three lawyers — Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, Mark Sullivan and Christopher G. Karagheuzoff — from the New York-based Dorsey and Whitney law firm, who are fighting the cases of the three Bahraini detainees said that the US government is putting strong obstacles in the process of the release of their clients while the military is continuing with its torture of the prisoners there.

They said that the "recent changes in the law prevent the detainees from fighting their cases in the court of law in the US, and that they would only be tried by the military.

However, none of the detainees has ever been tried and the charges against them are not released by the military.

At this point, the lawyers are left only with fighting to establish whether the changes are legal or not. And it will probably take a long time."

[renak]

I'm not an advocate of abuse. However, I'm having less sympathy for detainees. Before someone participates in questionable behaviours (or simply associates with those who do), they need to consider the consequences.

For example, I'm not going to run across the US/Mexican border and light up a marijuana joint. I know that Mexican jails are brutal; therefore, I'll try my best to stay out of them. However, if I were to get snatched up by the Mexican police for smoking dope, I will not complain (like a wuss) about my ill treatment.