A British citizen being held at Guantánamo Bay was subjected to "vindictive torture" and death threats while in US custody, according to claims in a letter he wrote that has been published today.
Moazzam Begg, from Birmingham, made the allegations in a four-page letter released uncensored to his legal team after being declassified by US officials - a development described by Mr Begg's lawyers as an "oddity".
The handwritten letter, dated July 12 2004, described the alleged abuse he received at the US military base in Bagram, Afghanistan, prior to his transfer to Guantánamo and his first contact with a lawyer. He also claims he witnessed the alleged killings of two fellow detainees in US custody.
"During several interviews - particularly, though unexclusively in Afghanistan - I was subjected to pernicious threats of torture, actual vindictive torture and death threats, amongst other coercively employed interrogation techniques," the 36-year-old wrote in the letter.
"The interviews were conducted in an environment of generated fear, resonant with terrifying screams of fellow detainees facing similar methods. In this atmosphere of severe antipathy towards detainees was the compounded use of racially and religiously prejudiced taunts.
...His lawyers said the document revealed he "has been, and continues to be, abused and tortured by the United States". They added that the letter also contained "shocking evidence concerning the US motive in continuing to hold him under inhumane circumstances"...."It gives a flavour of what's really going on down there, and it's scandalous that the US authorities think they can go round torturing people and then classify the evidence of that torture."
Moazzam Begg, from Birmingham, made the allegations in a four-page letter released uncensored to his legal team after being declassified by US officials - a development described by Mr Begg's lawyers as an "oddity".
The handwritten letter, dated July 12 2004, described the alleged abuse he received at the US military base in Bagram, Afghanistan, prior to his transfer to Guantánamo and his first contact with a lawyer. He also claims he witnessed the alleged killings of two fellow detainees in US custody.
"During several interviews - particularly, though unexclusively in Afghanistan - I was subjected to pernicious threats of torture, actual vindictive torture and death threats, amongst other coercively employed interrogation techniques," the 36-year-old wrote in the letter.
"The interviews were conducted in an environment of generated fear, resonant with terrifying screams of fellow detainees facing similar methods. In this atmosphere of severe antipathy towards detainees was the compounded use of racially and religiously prejudiced taunts.
...His lawyers said the document revealed he "has been, and continues to be, abused and tortured by the United States". They added that the letter also contained "shocking evidence concerning the US motive in continuing to hold him under inhumane circumstances"...."It gives a flavour of what's really going on down there, and it's scandalous that the US authorities think they can go round torturing people and then classify the evidence of that torture."
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