A Saudi suspected of involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks was tortured at the US detention site in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Washington Post reported Wednesday, citing a US official.
Susan Crawford, the Bush administration official in charge of deciding whether to bring Guantanamo detainees to trial, told the Post that the suspect cannot be tried because he was tortured.
US military interrogators subjected Mohammed al-Qahtani, 30, to sustained isolation, sleep deprivation, nudity and prolonged exposure to cold, leaving him in a "life-threatening condition," Crawford said.
"We tortured Qahtani," Crawford told the newspaper. "His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that's why I did not refer the case" for prosecution.
Qahtani, alleged to be the 20th hijacker in the September 11 attacks, was denied entry to the United States one month before the attacks but was captured in Afghanistan and flown to Guantanamo in January 2002.
He was interrogated over 50 days from November 2002 to January 2003, though he was held in isolation until April 2003, according to the Post.
"The techniques they used were all authorized, but the manner in which they applied them was overly aggressive and too persistent," Crawford told the Post.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment