Detainee Says He Was Abused While in U.S. Custody

By Raymond Bonner, New York Times

David Hicks, the first detainee to be formally charged under the new military tribunal rules at Guantanamo Bay, has alleged in a court document filed here that during more than five years in American custody he was beaten several times during interrogations and witnessed the abuse of other prisoners.

In an affidavit supporting his request for British citizenship, Mr. Hicks contends that before he arrived at Guantanamo, his American captors threw him and other detainees on the ground, walked on them, stripped him naked, shaved all his body hair and inserted a plastic object in his rectum.

The abuse, Mr. Hicks asserts, began during interrogations in Afghanistan, where he was captured in late 2001. It then continued while he was shuttled between American naval ships, aircraft, unknown buildings and Kandahar before he was taken to the military detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in early 2002, according to the affidavit.

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