Ex-Guantanamo detainees appeal to US Supreme Court

AFP Photo: British Muslims Ruhal Ahmed (L) and Shafiq Rasul (R), who are former detainees of Guantanamo.

Mon Aug 25, 5:52 PM ET

Four Britons released from Guantanamo in 2004 after two years' detention, requested the US Supreme Court to rule on the right of prisoners "to worship and ... not to be tortured."

If the high court takes the case, it will have to decide whether war-on-terror detainees have additional constitutional rights besides the right to challenge their detention in civilian court, as was confirmed in a June Supreme Court ruling.

British nationals Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, Rhuhel Ahmed and Jamal Al-Harith were held at the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 to April 2004, when they were released uncharged and deported to Britain.

Each of the four men sued then US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other high officials at the Guantanamo naval base for 10 million dollars, as compensation for their ordeal. The lawsuit was dismissed by a federal appeals court in January.

In their petition to the Supreme Court, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, the plaintiffs said their case "presents the opportunity to recognize and enforce rights that are at least as basic and essential to human autonomy -- the right to worship and the right not to be tortured."

"All four petitioners were held and interrogated under appalling conditions in Afghanistan by the United States before they were transported to Guantanamo where they were systemically tortured and abused pursuant to directives from respondent Rumsfeld and the military chain of command," it added.

The four Britons, who were between the ages of 19 and 24 at the time of their capture, allege mistreatment and torture at the hands of their jailers in Guantanamo, including "repeated beatings," "prolonged solitary confinement," "threats of attack from unmuzzled dogs," "forced nakedness," and "injection of unknown substances into their bodies."

They also alleged "deliberate interference with, and denigration of, their religious beliefs and practices, including the deliberate submersion of the Koran in a filthy toilet bucket."

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