Ahmed Hassan Jamil Suleyman: Allegations of Abuse

p.758

Detainee: I only spit at the guard after he spit at me and I never threw any water or fluids.

[…]

Detainee: […] you are saying that I theatened to kill them… how am I foing to kill them? And what good would it do to kill? I could've hit them. I had the ability to hit them, but they hit me. My hand is broken in four different places. See it’s clear…and you see? And they punished me without treating me and they put the whole thing on me. A lot of things like this they do.

p. 763

Presiding Officer: when did <t>he incident happen with your hand?

Detainee: This is old. This is maybe about two [or] two and a half years ago when we first came here.

Presiding Officer: And was it investigated at the time?

Detainee: I told them about my finger and they took me to the infirmary and they looked at it and the Doctor said [that] there wasn’t anything in it.

Presiding Officer: For the record we have to note that there was an incident where he was injured.

Detainee: And there is another one here in my elbow. They hit me here and I stayed for one here.

[…]

Assisting Military Officer: Ok, the situation with your hand…you are saying that the guards broke that here at this camp?

Detainee: Yes, in this camp.

Assisting Military Officer: Ok. About two and a half years ago?

Detainee: Yes, approximately two and a half years ago.

Assisting Military Officer: OK and can you explain what happened?

Detainee: We were in cellblock India…the solitary one…and there was a problem…the soldiers violated the book of Allah…the Koran. And they hit someone and he got paralyzed…he is in the hospital.

Assisting Military Officer: OK. The guard hit another Detainee and he was sent to the hospital?

Detainee: First of all they violated the Koran. They took the book and they threw it down and they know that we respect all books of other religions…the Jewish and the Christian and we said that this was against Allah. So we started making a fuss when we saw this happen and then the guards that were with us at the time were not good. The ones that

p. 764

were in that shift were not good. And then the guards came in...they caused a problem in the cellblock. They took our brother, the one that went to the hospital. They said that he tried to kill himself for the sake of the Koran…God knows.

Assisting Military Officer: OK but I want to focus on the situation with your hand. What happened to you?

Detainee: The officers came in and they saw what was happening. They told the other soldiers that this was not right…this was against the law…to violate the holy book and so they took our brother to the hospital and they started coming in to all the cells and looking in all the cells. They started beating us and my hand got broke.

Assisting Military Officer: OK, what did they hit you with?

Detainee: They came in to solitary…the room is closed because it is a solitary room. They slammed me on the floor and my hand got broke.

Assisting Military Officer: And you said that it got broken in four places?

Detainee: I don’t know what happened but I know that it got broken. Look at it now.

Assisting Military Officer: And you got sent to the clinic here at the hospital for medical help?

Detainee: Yes, they took me to the clinic. They took me and they photographed me and then they gave me a cast. And then when they investigated they said that ‘you posed a resistance to them.’ Maybe that is what they mean when they wrote that I had an incident where I tried to kill a guard. And I don’t have strength and I don’t want to fight and I didn’t want to fight at the time but we were asking why they had violated the book of Allah?

Assisting Military Officer: And then you said that you were injured in other areas too? Shoulders…arm…?

Detainee: (The Detainee Points) In the elbow and it was a year ago and I’ve been getting treated for a year.

Assisting Military Officer: So that is a separate incident?

Detainee: Yes, separate.

Assisting Military Officer: Can you explain what happened there?

Detainee: The second one? Also [the] same thing. It was a violation against the book of Allah. Another soldier violated the book of Allah.

p. 765

Assisting Military Officer: And then what happened?

Detainee: “They came in and they told us to get out of our cells and we told them that we did not want to get out of our cells until you bring in the supervisor. So we didn’t get out and the soldier that had done this was the same soldier that had done this before so he was walking up and down the cellblock in a very arrogant way and he was trying to get a rise out of us. We said that we were not going to come out of our cells for anything…for them to look at it…or for showers or anything.

Assisting Military Officer: And then what happened?

Detainee: The soldiers came in with a plastic thing and the <sic> hit me with it. For two I was bleeding and things were coming out of it and they were trying to clean it.

Assisting Military Officer: OK and what was this plastic thing?

Detainee: They have this plastic thing and we kneel on the ground and we don’t know.

Assisting Military Officer: Ok so it’s to prevent fluids and water from hitting the guards. That’s the plastic thing? Some kind of shield?

Detainee: No, when they come in we just kneel we don’t resist. How could you resist when seven people come in and they spray this thing on you? I don’t know what they use to spray but they spray us with something.

Assisting Military Officer: OK and this happened during the incident when his arm was cut?

Detainee: Yes and they sprayed us a lot.

Assisting Military Officer: With pepper spray of tear gas?

Detainee: Maybe. I don’t know what the stuff inside but when it comes on you when it comes in your eyes you don’t see anything. So I didn’t see anything…I just feel <sic> to the floor. I was kneeling and they came in and they pushed me to the floor and all of the sudden I saw the blood on my clothes…blood was coming out and they took me to the clinic. And that is what happened. They hit us and then they tell you and they write down that we were resisting or that we want to kill them and this is very unfair.

Presiding Officer: The first incident happened two and a half years ago and the last one was a year ago?

Detainee: The second incident happened more than a year ago but they have been treating it for a year.