Ex-Gitmo prisoner recounts drugging and torture horror during interrogations in Pakistan

A former Guantanamo Bay prisoner has claimed that he was drugged during several of his interrogations in Pakistan and Egypt in presence of American and Australian officials, and was brutally tortured.

Sydney, Nov 28 : A former Guantanamo Bay prisoner has claimed that he was drugged during several of his interrogations in Pakistan and Egypt in presence of American and Australian officials, and was brutally tortured.

Mamdouh Habib has filed a defamation suit against columnist Piers Akerman of Nationwide News for implying in an article that the he has made false claims about the torture he has gone through.

Habib told the Supreme Court that he had been beaten with sticks, kicked and suspended by his wrists from the ceiling for hours at a time, and had been given electric shocks that were so severe that he used to faint. gyptian-born Habib wept as he narrated about the alleged torture, saying, "I feel like a crazy, I would say stuff like a mental person," adding, " I lost all my memory, I don't know where I am, I don't know who I am."

He also claimed that an Australian official, who introduced himself as Alastair Adams, was present during one of his interrogations in October 2001 in Islamabad where he was given a needle containing drugs.

He said that his fingers were broken and nails were torn away, and had to undergo torture with dogs.

"They tied up my hands behind my back and they put shackles on my feet, and I have to be naked. My face was on the floor because the dog (was) on the top of me, they do sexual things," news.com.au quoted him, as saying in the court.

He claimed of being deprived of sleep and blankets, and was served food that was so bad "you can't even smell it".

Counsel of Nationwide News, Alec Leopold also submitted documents in support of his case that included letters from Habib to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Copies of Habib's passport and travel records were presented to the court.

However, the court declined to accept Leopold's suggestion for a close court during Friday's disposition of three officers.

"Before I take the step of closing the court I would need to have a proper basis for doing so," Justice McClellan said.

ANI