Report on Torture, Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment of Prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. (Kurnaz)

In July 2006, The New York Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) published its Report on Torture, Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment of Prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. This report is based on accounts drawn directly from habeas counsels’ unclassified notes reflecting prisoner statements made to counsel during in-person interviews conducted at Guantánamo beginning in the Fall of 2004. Some information for that report was taken also from public sources compiled in Cecili Thompson Williams & Kristine A. Huskey, Detention, Interrogation, and Torture at Guantánamo Bay: Materials and Case Files, a report published by the law firm of Shearman and Sterling LLP in October 2005. The testimony by or about Mr. Murat Karnaz in the CCR report can be found below.

(CCR54) Other prisoners exposed to temperature extremes are John Doe 1 (Afghani), Mr. Ahmed, Mr. Ahmad, Mr. Hassan, Mr. Boudella, Mr. La[h]mar, Mr. Kurnaz, twelve Kuwaiti prisoners, and Mr. Rasul (Center for Constitutional Rights 2006, 18).

(CCR55) Murat Kurnaz was short shackled to the floor for almost 24 hours and forced to urinate on himself (Center for Constitutional Rights 2006, 21).

(CCR56) Prisoners report that sex frequently is used to harass them. Women wearing bikinis and lingerie sexually taunted Murat Kurnaz on two occasions and suggested they would do sexual favors in return for cooperation. When he pushed away a woman who placed her hand down his shirt, he was beaten by an IRF team and left shackled for about 20 hours (Center for Constitutional Rights 2006, 24).

(CCR57) Murat Kurnaz reports that while in Kandahar, his head and upper body repeatedly were submerged in water to the point of near drowning, a practice called waterboarding, and he had electric shocks applied to his feet. He was hung by his hands and left for days at a time, sometimes without food (Center for Constitutional Rights 2006, 28).

Baher Azmy (undated) Unclassified Attorney Notes Regarding Murat Kurnaz (on file with author).