Incident: Kurnaz beaten, electric shocks

In the middle of this month, a young man born and raised in Germany of Turkish descent named Murat Kernaz will be arrested during a visit to madrassas (Islamic schools) in Pakistan. He will be held in US custody in Kandahar, and transferred to Guantanamo Bay in January of 2002. He remains detained.

He will allege that the following things occurred. In Kandahar:

• interrogators repeatedly forced his head into a bucket of cold water for long periods;
• interrogators gave electric shocks to his feet;
• he was held for days shackled and handcuffed with his arms secured above his head;
• on one occasion, a military officer loaded his gun and
• pointed it at Murat Kurnaz' head, screaming at him to admit to being an al-Qa'ida associate;
• he witnessed other detainees being beaten, one of whom apparently died as a result.

At Guantanamo Bay he claims he suffered sexual humiliation and taunting by young women in the interrogation room where he was shackled to the floor. When one of them began to caress him from behind, he jerked his head back, hitting her head. A response team of guards in riot gear entered the room, beat him and sprayed him with pepper spray. He was subsequently taken to an isolation cell, where he was left on the floor with his hands tied behind his back for about 20 hours.

Rabiye Kurnaz holding a photo of her son Murat. AFP. Taken from AI website.