Sunday, Oct 03, 2004
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By Tania Branigan
LONDON, OCT. 2. A Briton held at Guantanamo Bay has alleged that he saw U.S. soldiers kill two men in Afghanistan. Moazzam Begg (36), who has been detained for two and a half years without charge or trial complains, in the first letter from a serving inmate to describe severe mistreatment, of having suffered "vindictive torture" and death threats, and implies that he has made a false confession. His lawyers said yesterday that they believed he had been held in solitary confinement at the U.S. military base in Cuba because he had seen the killing. He has had no contact with fellow prisoners since his arrival almost 600 days ago.
A rare revelation
Although former detenus have alleged that they suffered extensive abuse and torture at Bagram in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo, mail from the camp is heavily censored. It is unclear why the Pentagon has cleared a document which makes such strong allegations of abuse. Mr. Begg's letter, which is labelled as a supplement to an earlier statement, was written in July and forwarded to his legal team earlier this week. In his letter, Mr. Begg, who comes from Birmingham in central England, said that he was a law-abiding Briton who had never met Osama bin Laden or joined the Al-Qaeda or other paramilitary organisations.
`Vindictive torture'
He was arrested by Pakistani agents at his home in Islamabad and handed over to the Americans, who held him at Bagram in Afghanistan for a year and transferred him to Guantanamo Bay in February last year. Mr. Begg wrote: "During several interviews, in Afghanistan, I was subjected to pernicious threats of torture, actual vindictive torture and death threats". — © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
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