In the latest edition of the French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, lawyer Jacques Debray reported that Sassi and Benchellali, who were also forced to take suspect medication, are now wondering if they were victims of experiments carried out by their torturers. “In Guantánamo, they were received by U.S. soldiers who urinated on them when they were taken off the plane. At no point did they know why they were there,” he related.
“They were interrogated at least 100 times, and before their interrogations, they would be taken past certain rooms from where they could hear screams. Nizar also told me that they were chained up in a room equipped with one-way mirrors where it was extremely cold.
They also recounted that there were chambers where they would have to listen to extremely violent music.
The two former Guantánamo detainees also spoke of “strange” medications that they were forced to take. “Once, after having received one of those medications, Nizar fainted and thinks that he was drugged without his knowledge for one or two days. They also received injections. They do not know what medication they were given but the two affirmed that one of the other detainees was covered in a rash after having received these medications.”
Hicks is facing a military trial in March. Among his other allegations:
- He once didn't see daylight for 8 months
- He was forcibly injected with sedatives and then beaten
- Numerous doctors collaborated on inflicting the torture
The Red Cross also complains of torture and cruelty at Guantanamo:
The system created by the Pentagon and the CIA in Guantánamo cannot be considered anything other than an intentional system of cruel, unusual and degrading treatment and a form of torture,” observed the Red Cross in its report sent to Washington, according to The New York Times.
The Red Cross confirmed that doctors and nurses advised the interrogators of prisoners’ physical vulnerabilities, something that the report describes as a flagrant violation of medical ethics.
