Omar Deghayes

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Omar Deghayes is a Libyan citizen with residency status in the United Kingdom, who was arrested in Pakistan in 2002. He is presently detained as an unlawful combatant in the United States Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. His lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith alleges that Deghayes was blinded by pepper spray inside the prison.

Deghayes' father was a union organiser who was executed in Libya while Omar was still a child. After this the family moved to the United Kingdom as refugees. According to the Birmingham Post Deghayes was a "laws graduate".[1]

His family has mounted a campaign to free Deghayes. This campaign has received the support of the Brighton Argus newspaper and all six members of parliament in Sussex, where Omar Deghayes resided for many years and where his family still live.

On February 3, 2005 US District Court Justice Joyce Hens Green ordered Deghayes, and some other Guantánamo detainees, should be protected by the fifth amendment to the US Constitution.[2]

The British High Court considered whether the United Kingdom government should petition the United States government, on behalf of Guantánamo detainees who had legal residency status.[3] The High Court concluded that they did not have the authority to make recommendation in the area of foreign affairs. They also called the evidence that the British residents were being tortured was "powerful".

Contents

[edit] Abuse claims

Deghayes has claimed that Guantanamo Guards held him down and sprayed pepper spray directly into his eyes.[4] Deghayes says that they then rubbed a rag soaked in pepper spray into his cornea. His right eye, which had already been weakened by a blow he received when he was a child. He says that he is now blind in that eye.

According to Deghayes's account:[4] "...troops marched into his cellblock 'singing and laughing' before spraying his face with mace and digging their fingers into his eyes as an officer shouted 'More! More.' ...My eye has gone a milky white color ... After all I have been through in my life to save it."

The DoD declined to comment on specific abuse claims.[4] But DoD spokesman Lieutenant Commander Flex Plexico repeated his counter-claim that al Qaeda training manuals instruct al Qaeda members to lie about abuse, if captured, to trigger international outrage. He called Guantanamo:"...a safe, humane and professional detention operation..."

[edit] Facial recognition

One of the allegations Deghayes faced was that American intelligence analysts had acquired a video-tape that identified Deghayes as one of the individuals in an Chechnyan rebel video tape.[5][6][7] However, the opinion of Professor Tim Valentine, of Goldsmith College, a facial recognition expert, is that the face in the videotape could not possibly be Deghayes. It lacks the clearly identifiable marks left by a childhood injury.

Clive Stafford Smith said that the face in the videotape was eventually identified as a Chechen named Abu Walid.[6] He said the face looked more like Fidel Castro than it looked like his client.

[edit] hunger strikes

Deghayes was one of the hunger strikers who joined the most publicized hunger strike said to have been triggered when guards brutally beat Hisham Sliti.[8][9][10][11]

According to an article by Clive Stafford Smith, Deghayes wrote:[11]

"I am slowly dying in this solitary prison cell, I have no rights, no hope. So why not take my destiny into my own hands, and die for a principle?"

[edit] References

  1. ^ Neil Connor. "Protest at Brum factory making Cuba shackles", Birmingham Post, Septtember 9 2005. Retrieved on April 2, 2007.
  2. ^ In re Guantánamo Detainee Cases (February 3, 2005).
  3. ^ Judges powerless over detainees at Guantánamo, The Guardian, May 5, 2006
  4. ^ a b c Letta Tayler. "Detainee: They blinded me", Newsday, October 3, 2005. Retrieved on April 2, 2007.
  5. ^ Guantanamo Bay: Campaigning Against Complicity with Torture. The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation. Retrieved on April 2, 2007.
  6. ^ a b Clive Stafford Smith (July 20, 2005). From Brighton to Camp Delta: Mis-identification leads to three years in Guantánamo Bay. cageprisoners.com. Retrieved on April 2, 2007.
  7. ^ Barbara Slaughter (May 16, 2005). Sister of Guantanamo Detainee Speaks Out: “How can they call themselves champions of democracy?”. cageprisoners.com. Retrieved on April 2, 2007.
  8. ^ Carol D. Leonnig. "More Join Guantanamo Hunger Strike: Detainees Demand Hearings, Allege Beatings by Guards", Washington Post, Tuesday, September 13, 2005. Retrieved on April 2, 2007.
  9. ^ Neil A. Lewis. "Guantánamo Prisoners Go on Hunger Strike", New York Times, September 18, 2005. Retrieved on April 2, 2007.
  10. ^ Alexandra Olson. "U.S. Military Tube-Feeds 13 Gitmo Strikers", San Francisco Chronicle, Saturday, September 10, 2005. Retrieved on April 2, 2007.
  11. ^ a b Clive Stafford Smith. "Gitmo's Hunger Strikers", The Nation (magazine), September 29, 2005. Retrieved on April 2, 2007.

[edit] External links

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