Annual Report 2012
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Document - USA: Guantánamo detainee held in isolation: Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif: Further information



FU on UA: 125/09 Index: AMR 51/037/2010 USA Date: 7 May 2010


URGENT ACTION

GUANTÁNAMO detainee HELD IN ISOLATION

Yemeni national Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif is being held in isolation in Guantánamo. He told his laywer in March that he continues to be subjected to ill-treatment and indicated that he feels suicidal.

Yemeni national Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif (whose Internment Serial Number is 156) has been held in Guantánamo without charge or trial for more than eight years. He is currently being held in isolation in Guantánamo’s Camp 5, which holds the few remaining hunger strikers at Guantánamo and some other detainees. Adnan Latif was on hunger strike but has now abandoned it. Almost all of the other Guantánamo detainees now live in communal conditions in Camps 1, 4, and 6. Adnan Latif’s lawyer has asked the authorities to end his isolation by moving him to one of the other camps.

In a letter to his lawyers written in March 2010, Adnan Latif alleged that he had been repeatedly ill-treated by Guantánamo’s Immediate Response Force (IRF). He states that “IRF teams enter my cell on [a] regular basis. They throw me and drag me on the floor…two days before writing this letter [the IRF team] strangled me and pressed hard behind my ears … I lost consciousness for more than an hour”. His lawyer told Amnesty International that he has cuts and bruises. Adnan Latif also wrote in his letter in March that the circumstances in which he is living “makes death more desirable than living…I find no taste for life, sleep or rest”. He has made several suicide attempts in Guantánamo. On 10 May 2009, Adnan Latif cut one of his wrists during a meeting with his lawyer at Guantánamo and threw his blood at his lawyer. Thereafter, he was made to meet with his lawyer in shackles.

Adnan Latif was previously held in solitary confinement in a psychiatric ward at Guantánamo. Amnesty International does not have further information about Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif’s current health, but given his previous suicide attempts, his reported physical and mental health problems, combined with his continued indefinite detention without charge or trial, Amnesty International remains seriously concerned for his physical and psychological health.

Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif’s family, including his young son, live in Yemen.

PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in English or your own language:

  • expressing concern for the health and well-being of Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif and about his allegations of ill-treatment;

  • calling for an end to his conditions of isolation;

  • calling for an immediate investigation into all allegations of ill-treatment of Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif;

  • calling for him to have immediate access to independent medical experts;

  • calling for him to be immediately released, unless he is charged with recognizable criminal offences and brought to trial in an independent and impartial court according to international fair trial standards.


PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 18 JUNE 2010 TO:

President Barack Obama

The Whitehouse

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington DC 20500, USA

Fax: + 1 202 456 2461

Email: Via website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

Salutation: Dear Mr. President

Attorney General Eric Holder

US Department of Justice

950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington DC 20530-0001

USA

Fax: +1 202 307 6777

Email: via website AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

Salutation: Dear Attorney General

Daniel Fried

US Department of State

2201 C Street NW

Washington DC, 20520

USA

Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date. This is the 2nd update of UA 125/09. Further information: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/066/2009/en


URGENT ACTION


GUANTÁNAMO detainee claims abuse continuing

ADditional Information

There are currently 181 men held at the detention facility at the US Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The Guantánamo detainee task force established under an executive order signed by President Barack Obama on 22 January 2009 is reported to have recommended that about 35 of the detainees be prosecuted by the USA, either in federal court or in military commissions, and that about 48 more continue to be held without charge or trial. The task force is reported to have determined that the remaining (approximately 100) detainees can be released either immediately or eventually.


Well over half of those who remain detained are Yemeni nationals. In December 2009 US authorities suspended any transfers of Yemeni nationals from Guantánamo citing security concerns. It is not known exactly how many of those Yemeni nationals who remain held have been classified as eligible for release, but estimates run higher than 50 percent.


Yemeni authorities continue to call for Yemeni nationals detained in Guantánamo to be returned home.


The US administration has proposed purchasing and refitting Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois for detention in military custody of Guantánamo detainees awaiting trial by military commission or in federal court, those whom the USA determines it can neither prosecute nor release, and those awaiting transfer or release. The administration is seeking congressional support for this plan. No final decisions have been announced.



FU on UA: 125/09 Index: AMR 51/037/2010 Issue Date: 7 May 2010

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