You are here: Home / Projects / The Guantánamo Testimonials Project / Testimonies / Testimonies of the Prisoners / Amnesty Report AMR 51/066/2009

Amnesty Report AMR 51/066/2009

PUBLIC AI Index: AMR 51/066/2009
13 May 2009
UA 125/09 Health concern/detention without trial

 

Yemen national Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, who has made a number of suicide attempts in recent months, cut one of his wrists during a meeting with his lawyer in the US Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba on 10 May. Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif has been held in Guantánamo without charge for more than seven years.Amnesty International is seriously concerned for his physical and psychological health.

His US lawyer stated following the visit that Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif" chipped off a piece of the stiff veneer on the underside of our conference table and used it to saw into a vein in his left wrist…As he sawed, he drained his blood into a plastic container and, shortly before it was time for me to leave, he hurled the blood at me from the container.” A spokesman at Guantánamo confirmed the incident took place but said it could not be classified as a suicide attempt.

Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif has attempted suicide several times since September 2008. He has told his lawyer that on one occasion in November 2008, he tried to hang himself twice in one day. At least one of these attempts was confirmed to his lawyer by an official at Guantánamo.

Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif has been held in solitary confinement in the psychiatric ward at Guantánamo since at least November 2008. He has told his lawyers that when he is awake he sees ghosts in the darkness, hears frightening voices and suffers from nightmares when he is asleep. He has also told his lawyers that he has ingested all sorts of materials including garbage bags, urine cups, prayer beads, a water bottle and a screw and that he has eaten his own excrement and smeared it on his body and that he has used his own excrement to cover the walls of his cell door, the camera on the ceiling of his cell and the air vent in his cell.

In addition to mental health problems Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif is reported to suffer from a number of physical health problems, including a fractured cheekbone, a shattered eardrum, blindness in one eye, a dislocated shoulder blade, and a possibly dislocated knee. He also says that he suffers constant throat and stomach pain which make it difficult for him to eat. Consequently he is force-fed up to three times a day with a tube that runs from the nose to the stomach whilst strapped to a restraint chair.

Get original here