The Hindu : U.S. report bolsters detenus' abuse charge

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 24, 2003

International

International

U.S. report bolsters detenus' abuse charge

NEW YORK JUNE 23. Yasser Ebrahim says his introduction to the Federal prison system came from guards slamming his head into a wall while calling him a ``terrorist.''

Shakir Baloch says guards at the same lockup warned him: ``You will be here the rest of your life.''

Those allegations and others — including random beatings — made by Muslim men held on immigration charges after the Sept. 11 attacks had been routinely dismissed by Federal officials.

Earlier this month, however, the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General issued a report saying it found ``significant problems'' with the treatment of nearly 800 detainees nationwide, including abusive conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn where Mr. Ebrahim and Mr. Baloch were held.

The report cast a critical light on the little-known Federal lockup on the waterfront, and breathed life into a pending civil rights lawsuit filed by Mr. Ebrahim, Mr. Baloch and five others against the Attorney General, John Ashcroft, prison personnel, FBI supervisors and other officials. The plaintiffs are seeking class action status.

``What we said about all the suffering was true,'' Mr. Ebrahim (31), said in a phone interview from his native Egypt. ``The Government was doing its best to deny it.''

Both Mr. Ebrahim and Mr. Baloch were held for eight months without being charged with a crime, then were deported. ``I'm owed an apology,'' said Mr. Baloch (41), a Pakistan-born doctor with Canadian citizenship.

Their lawyers have amended the lawsuit, filed last year, to incorporate the Inspector General's findings. The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, claims Federal officials violated their rights by imprisoning them on the basis of their race and religion.

More than 80 men designated ``of high interest'' in the FBI investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks were jailed at the facility in Brooklyn between Sept. 14, 2001 and Aug. 27, 2002. The nine-storey facility usually houses men and women charged with Federal crimes, not immigration violations.

Inmates like Mr. Ebrahim and Mr. Baloch were classified ``suspected terrorists'' and put in high-security cell blocks normally reserved for dangerous inmates.

The men say they were denied access to phones and lawyers for weeks at a time, locked in tiny cells where lights burned all night, kept awake by guards pounding on their doors, put in handcuffs and shackles whenever outside their cells, and beaten at random.

``I was being hated by everyone around me wanting revenge for Sept. 11,'' Mr. Ebrahim said. The abuse allegedly subsided once guards were ordered to videotape detainees outside their cells — a policy that prison officials said was designed simply to deter accusations of mistreatment. — AP

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International