Imprisoned Detainee Claims Torture by the U.S. in Afghanistan & Guantanamo

By:  Lindsey Brady
Impunity Watch Managing Editor - News

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - Murat Kurnaz is a resident of Germany who is claiming he was captured in Pakistan in 2002 and then imprisoned for two months at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan.  Kurnaz was 19 when he was transferred to Guantanamo from a Kandahar in early 2002.  Kurnaz claims he was tortured by American interrogators while they insisted he was a member of al-Qaeda and linked to Mohamed Atta.  Atta is an alleged plotter behind the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center.

Kurnaz claims that when he responded to interrogators that he did not know Atta or refused to speak that the interrogators tortured him.  Kurnaz lists being hung from a ceiling by his arms for nearly a week ,enduring freezing temperatures, having his head dunked in water, and being given electric shocks to his feet among the many forms of torture.  Kurnaze alleged that torture continued to occur systematically when he was a U.S. prisoner in 2005 at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  After his transfer to Cuba the German government officials "confirmed that Kurnaz had no links to terrorist groups and had probably been seized by mistake" according to the Washington Post.  Kurnaz spent five years at Guantanamo Bay and was released in 2006 after the U.S. received pressure from the German government.

Kurnaz plans to write a book detailing his experiences under U.S. custody.  Bryan Whitman, a spokesman for the Pentagon, said Kurnaz's allegations of torture lack the evidence to be credible.  Specifically Whitman was quoted by the Washington Post as saying, "the abuses Mr. Kurnaz alleges are not only unsubstantiated, they are implausible and outlandish."  Kurnaz's lawyer, Baher Azmy, however insists that his client's experiences were real and are consistent with other reports of detainees who allege torture.

For more information please see:

Washington Post - Ex-Afghanistan Detainee Alleges Torture by U.S. - 29 March 2008

JURIST - Ex-Guantanamo Bay Detainee Describes Torture Allegations - 29 March 2008

Newsbusters - CBS's Pelley:  Innocent Man Tortured in "America's Shadow Prison System" - 31 March 2008