Documents reveal Habib torture allegations [Australia]

[velvet]

New detail has emerged about the alleged torture inflicted on Australian terrorism suspect Mamdouh Habib while he was in Egypt. Mr Habib was captured by US forces in Pakistan in 2002 and was moved to Egypt before being taken to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

<snip>

The Sydney man says he was left in rooms filled with water up to his chin, tortured with electrodes during questioning and threatened with dogs.

<snip>

Mr Habib's Australia-based lawyer, Stephen Hopper, says the new evidence implicates the Australian Government. Mr Hopper says the most serious allegation in the documents concerns the involvement of an Australian official in his client's alleged abuse before he was taken to Egypt.

"The Australian officials stood by while what we believe were CIA officials engaged in the type of abuses we've seen at Abu Graib, where Mamdouh Habib's clothes were cut off, he's handcuffed, held down with women around him," he said.

More: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200501/s1277343.htm?fp_news_stor

[struggle4progress]

1. Official 'watched Habib torture'

AN Australian official stood by and watched while US agents tortured and humiliated Australian terror suspect Mamdouh Habib, a newly released legal document alleges today.

Mr Habib received electric shocks, was beaten, kicked and subjected to water torture at the hands of his American captors, Mr Habib's American lawyer Joe Margulies alleged.

The allegations are contained in an affidavit supporting a restraining order against the US Government to prevent Mr Habib being sent from Guantanamo Bay back to custody in Egypt.

Mr Habib, from Sydney, has been imprisoned without charge since he was captured in Pakistan in early October 2001, accused of aiding terrorist network al-Qaeda. <snip>

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11866177%5E1702,00.html

[Matilda]

2. Both Habib and Hicks have alleged that they were tortured

for about twelve months now, but Howard's ministers persist that
the US is innocent until proven guilty - there's no question though
that Hicks and Habib should be presumed innocent until proven
otherwise.

This is another disgraceful act of submission by Howard to the Bush
regime, but sadly most Australians don't seem at all troubled by
the knowledge that if any one of us happens to be caught in the
wrong place at the wrong time we can't look to our Government for
help and support.