“We had no rights, we were not treated as human beings”

Interview with Sami Elhaj, former Guantanamo inmate, conducted by Professor Alfred De Zayas

Professor Alfred de Zayas: Mr. Elhaj, in May 2008 you were released from Guantánamo after more than six years detention. You are now in Geneva to meet with officials at the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Back in December 2001 you were arrested on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Although you had nothing to do with terrorism, you were not an “enemy combatant” and were never prosecuted, how do you explain your detention?
Sami Elhaj: The US military falsely alleged I was a courier for a militant Muslim organization. I am an Al-Jazeera journalist and was arrested probably because of US hostility toward Al-Jazeera and because the media was reporting on US rights violations in Afghanistan.

Have you demanded compensation from the US authorities for more than 6 years of arbitrary detention? Article 9(5) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights stipulates a right of compensation in cases of arbitrary arrest or detention. Have you considered a class action of former Guantanamo detainees against the US for arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, torture, religious outrage, defamation?
I have come to Geneva so soon after my release because I am concerned about those who remain in Guantanamo Bay and who need my help. My focus right now is to increase awareness and understanding about the situation experienced by prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay where I was held, without charge, for 6 1/2 years. These men need to be released and many of them cannot return to their homes and need protection from other countries.
I also focus on increasing awareness regarding those thousands of prisoners still being detained in secret prisons around the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan, secret prisons that were established in the context of the ‘war on terror’. There is also, of course, the need to consider the issue of moral and legal compensation for all those who have been victim to these measures and the torture and loss of dignity and freedom we have all suffered. Right now, I am focused on the release of the prisoners from these places of detention and for their human rights to be protected.

Are you writing a book about your experiences? – if not, why not?
I am working on many projects and I hope in the future to be able to record my experiences and thoughts in this way.

You have used a walking stick since your detention. Were you personally subjected to torture in Guantanamo?
Many, many things happened to me in the 6 1/2 years from the time when I was taken prisoner. These included being beaten. When I needed medical treatment due to a head injury caused by mistreatment, the doctor could only treat me through the bars of my cell. I was tied in difficult ways and kept in painful positions. I was kept in very cold cells and my clothes were taken from me as punishment. We were unable to keep track of the time, the days, the months. I went on a hunger strike to protest our situation and the way I was treated was inhumane and torturous. I was force-fed until I was sick, they used tubes which were unclean and very painful – many, many things. The way they treated the prisoners on hunger strike was a special kind of torture. We had no rights, we were not treated as human beings.

What was most difficult to endure in Guantanamo?
The violation of dignity, the deprivation of contact with my family and the deprivation to be able to practice my faith.

Did you know the inmates who committed suicide?
I can say many things about this. First, I do not believe these inmates committed suicide and I have spoken to UN Human Rights officials about this during my trip to Geneva. I did know these men, and I know that one of them had even just recently received good news through his lawyer about his situation. In the case of Ahmed Ali Abdullah, a Yemeni citizen, Alkarama/Dignity for Human Rights has helped the family organize an autopsy of their son’s body. Alkarama commissioned a medical team headed by the director of the University of Lausanne’s Institute of Forensic Medicine. The examination took place at the Sanaa Military Hospital. The autopsy report revealed a certain number of anomalies, in particular the American authorities’ keeping anatomical organs corresponding to the upper airways, which constitute the centrepiece in a case of suicide by hanging. In the two other cases of the suspicious deaths of Yassir Talal az-Zahrani and Mani’ Shaman al-Utaybi, these organs were also removed. The file on this issue is not yet closed.

Did you suffer religious insults or humiliation?
Yes, many times and I have seen many things. I have seen the Holy Koran stepped on with boots and insults and obscene phrases written on it. During questioning the interrogator sat on the Holy Koran and said he would not stand up until his questions were answered. They drew bad pictures of the Prophet Mohammed. They would cut our beards and take our clothes from us as punishment. They would pretend to be talking to Allah on the telephone, mocking him. They would force us to watch obscene and violent films and force us to describe what we had seen. Many, many things happened during all those years and it is a very painful matter. I was also subjected to racist comments – something I could not believe would happen in this century.

Thank you Mr. Elhaj for this interview, and may you be successful in facilitating the liberation of other innocent inmates in Guantanamo and elsewhere in the world.•

UN-Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of 10 December 1984

The States Parties to this Convention,
Considering that, in accordance with the principles proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations, recognition of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Recognizing that those rights derive from the inherent dignity of the human person,
Considering the obligation of States under the Charter, in particular Article 55, to promote universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Having regard to article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both of which provide that no one may be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,
Having regard also to the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted by the General Assembly on 9 December 1975 (resolution 3452 (XXX)),
Desiring to make more effective the struggle against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment throughout the world,
Have agreed as follows:

Article 1

1 For the purposes of this Convention, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.
2 This article is without prejudice to any international instrument or national legislation which does or may contain provisions of wider application.

Article 2

1 Each State Party shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction.
2 No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.
3 An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.

Article 3

1 No State Party shall expel, return („refouler“) or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.
2 For the purpose of determining whether there are such grounds, the competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the existence in the State concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights. […]

Article 5

1 Each State Party shall ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law. The same shall apply to an attempt to commit torture and to an act by any person which constitutes complicity or participation in torture.
2 Each State Party shall make these offences punishable by appropriate penalties which take into account their grave nature. [...]

Article 10

1 Each State Party shall ensure that education and information regarding the prohibition against torture are fully included in the training of law enforcement personnel, civil or military, medical personnel, public officials and other persons who may be involved in the custody, interrogation or treatment of any individual subjected to any form of arrest, detention or imprisonment.
2 Each State Party shall include this prohibition in the rules or instructions issued in regard to the duties and functions of any such persons.

Article 11

Each State Party shall keep under systematic review interrogation rules, instructions, methods and practices as well as arrangements for the custody and treatment of persons subjected to any form of arrest, detention or imprisonment in any territory under its jurisdiction, with a view to preventing any cases of torture.

Article 12

Each State Party shall ensure that its competent authorities proceed to a prompt and impartial investigation, wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture has been committee in any territory under its jurisdiction.

Article 13

Each State Party shall ensure that any individual who alleges he has been subjected to torture in any territory under its jurisdiction has the right to complain to and to have his case promptly and impartially examined its competent authorities. Steps shall be taken to ensure that the complainant and witnesses are protected against all ill-treatment or intimidation as a consequence of his complaint or any evidence given.

Article 14

1 Each State Party shall ensure in its legal system that the victim of an act of torture obtains redress and has an enforceable right to fair and adequate compensation including the means for as full rehabilitation as possible. In the event of the death of the victim as a result of an act of torture, his dependents shall be entitled to compensation.
2 Nothing in this article shall affect any right of the victim or other person to compensation which may exist under national law.

Article 15

Each State Party shall ensure that any statement which is established to have been made as a result of torture shall not be invoked as evidence in any proceedings, except against a person accused of torture as evidence that the statement was made.

Article 16

1 Each State Party shall undertake to prevent in any territory under its jurisdiction other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment which do not amount to torture as defined in article 1, when such acts are committed by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. In particular, the obligations contained in articles 10, 11, 12 and 13 shall apply with the substitution for references to torture or references to other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
2 The provisions of this Convention are without prejudice to the provisions of any other international instrument or national law which prohibit cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment or which relate to extradition or expulsion. [...]