(ANSA) - NEW YORK, OCTOBER 29 - Torture and sexual abuse during interrogations. For the first time a detainee from Guantanamo, the American anti-terrorism prison in Cuba, speaks publicly about the practices used in the so-called 'Black Sites' of the CIA where, in violation of the 'Habeas corpus' legislation (against arbitrary penalties) 'advanced interrogations', comparable precisely to torture.
Speaking is Majid Khan, a former Baltimore resident hired as a courier by al-Qaeda, during a hearing in which jurors must decide on his conviction for war crimes. Khan said he was hung naked from a ceiling beam, kept awake for days in ice-cold water, waterboarded, beaten, starved, and sexually abused.
If convicted, the inmate faces up to 40 years in prison.
With a plea bargain, the sentence could be reduced to 11 years, but since he has been in prison since 2012, with a penalty he could be free as early as next year and transferred to another country other than Pakistan, of which he holds citizenship.
(HANDLE).
