The United Nation's top expert on torture has pointed towards the continuing practice of torturing detainees at the US detention center in Guantanamo Bay, and sought access to one of the most notorious American prisons to interview its inmates.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture, Nils Melzer, appealed to the US Government to end a pervasive policy of impunity for crimes of torture committed by US officials, and to bring its own perpetrators to justice.
A Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA's detention and interrogation program in 2014 publicly acknowledged the systematic use of torture in US custody.
Melzer said he was particularly concerned about detainees who had faced prolonged detention in almost complete isolation.
He highlighted the case of Ammar al-Baluchi, the nephew of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is accused of arranging the financing for the biggest terrorist attacks that shook the United States.
Named 153 times in the Senate report, Al Baluchi is said to have suffered relentless torture for three-and-a-half years in CIA "black sites" before being moved to Guantanamo Bay.
Al-Baluchi has been held in isolation at the US naval facility in Cuba for more than a decade, the Special Rapporteur said.
"In addition to the long-term effects of past torture, noise and vibrations are reportedly still being used against him, resulting in constant sleep deprivation and related physical and mental disorders", Melzer said in a statement.
The Special Rapporteur strongly reminded the US authorities that violating the ban on torture and ill-treatment in custody is listed among the most serious international crimes.
Melzer reiterated his request for permission to conduct an official visit to the Guantanamo Bay and to interview inmates there.
Despite repeated requests, UN Special Rapporteurs on torture have consistently been refused access to the high-security military jail and other such US detention centers.
After releasing more than 600 detainees, currently, around 60 men are held at the U.S. naval base in southeast Cuba. The military jail was set up in 2002 by former president George W. Bush to hold suspects who are suspected of committing terrorist activities against the United States.
Due to the facts that the inmates are detained indefinitely without trial and some of them were severely tortured, this camp is considered as a major breach of human rights.
But President Donald Trump is skeptical of potential threat posed by the release of terrorism suspects in GTMO, and has made it clear that its closure is unlikely.
by RTT Staff Writer
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