Guantanamo Detainee Sues to Stop Transfer to Egypt
Mamdouh Habib is a detainee at Guantanamo. He came here from Egypt in 2001 where he alleges he was The tortured for six months.
The court petition said that while in prison in Egypt Mr. Habib was subjected to regular beatings, electric shocks and attacks by dogs. During his imprisonment, he confessed to several crimes, and his lawyer said that those coerced confessions had been used by American military authorities at Guantánamo to deem Mr. Habib properly detained there as an unlawful enemy combatant.
Habib filed suit in November in federal court in Washington to block his transfer back to Egypt. The case was unsealed yesterday. The Times reports it is not known if the U.S. plans to send him to Egypt.
The practice of sending prisoners overseas is known as "rendition." Courts have not often addressed the issue.
the case is one of the rare instances in which the practice known as rendition, in which a prisoner is transferred to the custody of another government, may be openly considered by a federal court.
The Washington Post reported earlier this week that the State Department was working with the Pentagon to ship Guuantanamo detainees overseas to prisons that would be run by the foreign governments--and that the detainees might be kept for life.
The federal court needs to demand a response from the Government. If there are any plans to send detainees to countries that use torture, it needs to come out and it needs to be stopped.
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