Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir

Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] Bwazir's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 440. American intelligence analysts estimate he was born in 1980, in Howra, Yemen.

As of August 18, 2010, Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir has been held at Guantanamo for nine years three months.^[2]

Hunger strike

The Washington Post reports that Bawazir's lawyers assert that Bawazir was one of the hunger strikers, and that the new harsher procedures camp authorities instituted to break te hunger strike violated last fall's proscription on torture.^[3]

Camp authorities have been force-feeding hunger strikers. In January 2006 camp authorities started using "restraint chairs" to feed detainees.^[4]

The Center for Constitutional Rights quoted from the emergency injunction Bawazir's lawyers filed on his behalf, in reaction to what they described as the unnecessary violence of his force-feeding in the restraint chair:^[5]

• Forcibly strapped Mr. Bawazir into a restraint chair, tying his legs, arms, head, and midsection to the chair.
• Inserted of a feeding tube that was larger than the tube that had previously been left in Mr. Bawazir's nose, increasing the pain of the insertion and extraction.
• Poured four bottles of water into his stomach through the nasal gastric tube every time he was fed even though Mr. Bawazir has never refused to drink water by mouth.
• Restrained Mr. Bawazir in the chair for extended periods at each feeding.
• Denied Mr. Bawazir access to a toilet while he was restrained and then for an additional hour or more after he was released from the chair.
• Placed Mr. Bawazir in solitary confinement.

Medical records show Bawazir's weight had dropped to 97 pounds, during the 140 days of his hunger strike.^[6] Medical records show Bawazir was restrained in the chair longer than the manufacturer's directions.

Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Martin asserted that the force-feedings were conducted humanely. He explained the extraordinary duration of the detainee's confinement to the restraint chair was due to the length of time the force-feeding took.

U.S. government lawyers argued that the bans on torture and cruel and unusual treatment didn't apply to captives in Guantánamo Bay.^[7] Justice Gladys Kessler called the allegations "extremely disturbing".

On February 11, 2009 US District Court judge Gladys Kessler declined to bar the use of restraint chairs for force-feeding Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bawazir and Omar Khamis Bin Hamdoon.^[8] Kessler's noted that Bawazir and Hamdoon petition stated that the use of the restraint chair was "tantamount to torture". But she stated the opinion that because she lacked the medical expertise to evaluate the position of the camp's medical authorities she lacked jurisdiction to rule on the petition.

According to the Agence France Presse Bawazir and Hamdoon were not opposed to being force fed. According to the Agence France Presse camp authorities are withholding medical treatment for their other ailments from the hunger strikers, in an attempt to pressure them to quit their strike.

See also

• Hunger strike

References

External links

• Who Are the Remaining Prisoners in Guantánamo? Part Two: Captured in Afghanistan (2001) Andy Worthington, September 17, 2010
• Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir: Allegations of Abuse