Human Rights Watch Report claims Zubayda is being tortured

posted on October 12, 2004 | in Category Mohamed Harkat | PermaLink

In the report summarised below, there is further substantiation of the claim that Abu Zubayda is being tortured under US custody. Abu Zubayda is one of the people that CSIS apparently claims recognised [both Mohamed Harkat's picture and] Adil Charkaoui's picture. After earlier evidence that Zubayda was being tortured was presented in court by Charkaoui's lawyer and the witness Abdulrahman Khadr, the judge who is hearing Charkaoui's case decided to temporarily suspend all consideration of Zubayda's testimony. Perhaps this new report will convince him to make that a permanent decision. Unfortunately, Charkaoui is not able to cross-examine Abu Zoubaydah about any testimony he may have given against him.

More generally, the torture of these detainees, and open coverage of this torture by a mainstream group like Human Rights Watch, shows just how far the US has come in terms of the normalisation of torture, and the use of the "terrorist" label to justify new areas of violence and abuse by the state.

The report can be accessed at [link]

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