User:Geo Swan/gitmo/Sulaiman Shah
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Sulaiman Shah is a Afghan who was detained in Camp Delta, in the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
He was one of eighteen detainees repatriated on March 22, 2003, and released by Afghan authorities four days later.
Shah said he was a car dealer, a businessman who had no idea why he was arrested. Shah was held in Sherberghan, by forces of Abdul Rashid Dostam.
[edit] External links
- Returning Afghans Talk of Guantanamo: Out of Legal Limbo, Some Tell of Mistreatment, Washington Post, March 26, 2003
- Terror prisoners' "brutal treatment", e-ariana mirroring The Australian, March 26, 2003
- Sulaiman Shah, who said he was a businessman captured for no reason in northern Afghanistan, said Americans generally treated him well, but he also remained bitter. "I was in such a small [cell] and couldn't go outside for many days," he said. "My toilet was next to my bed, and it was a very bad way to live."
Sulaiman Shah, who said he was a businessman captured for no reason in northern Afghanistan, said Americans generally treated him well, but he also remained bitter. "I was in such a small [cell] and couldn't go outside for many days," he said. "My toilet was next to my bed, and it was a very bad way to live."
"I am innocent, I had nothing to do with the Taliban," said Salaiman Shah, who said he was working as a used car trader when he was seized by troops who accused him of fighting alongside the hardline militia.
He said he was initially detained in the notorious Sherberghan prison in northern Afghanistan by troops loyal to US-allied warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostam.
"At Sherberghan life was inhuman, all the prisoners had diarrhoea, some had tuberculosis, there was no food for days at a time and we were subjected to beatings and torture."
Shah said he and the others were transferred to US control at Kandahar air base in southern Afghanistan before being taken to Guantanamo, where he said treatment was harsh but better.
- cageprisoners.com says he is a 31 year old Taliban fighter from Kandahar
- Suleiman Shah is 31 years old. He was a former Taliban fighter from Kandahar Province in Southern Afghanistan.
- He spent 14 months at Guantanamo. He described the uncertainty and fear, "some were saying this is a prison for 150 years". He was kept in a small wire mesh cell of 6.5 ft by 8 ft, in blocks of 10 or 20. covered by a wooden roof but open at the sides to the elements. "We slept ate prayed and went to the toilet in that small space". They had two blankets, a prayer mat, and slept and ate on the ground. They were taken out only once a week for a one minute shower.
- "After four and a half months we complained and people stopped eating, so they said we could shower for five minutes and exercise once a week," Mr. Shah said. After that, he said, prisoners got to exercise for 10 minutes a week, walking around the inside of a cage 30 feet long.
