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Freed prisoner wants $10.4m
10/07/2003 10:23 - (SA)
Islamabad - Freed after 10 months in an American prison on Guantanamo Bay, 51-year-old Pakistani Mohammed Sanghir is demanding $10.4m in compensation and damages from the US government, his lawyer says.
Sanghir left Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, last November - the first Pakistani released from the prison currently holding about 600 inmates. He tells of solitary confinement and being caged, and claims he was served alcohol-laced drinks, forbidden by his religion, Islam.
His legal notice, served by Pakistan lawyer Mohammed Ikram Chaudhry in Rawalpindi, was seen on Wednesday by The Associated Press.
"They said, 'You are innocent,"' Sanghir said at the time at his home in northwest Pakistan. "They didn't say sorry. They just said, 'You can go home'."
Sanghir, who wore a green plastic wristband with his picture, name, age and prison number US9PK000143DP, said his US captors promised him $2 000 in compensation when he got off the plane in Pakistan - but that he received only $100.
For two months, he tried to get the rest of his money, he said. In December, he threatened to go to court.
Chaudhry said he had mailed the legal notice to the US Embassy in the capital, Islamabad, on Wednesday and that it named the US state department, defence department and US justice department.
The notice demands a reply within four weeks. If there's no compensation, Chaudhry said a lawsuit would be filed in either a US or Pakistani court or both.
Sanghir's legal statement charges maltreatment by his Afghan captors and later by the Americans.
While being held in northern Afghanistan, Sanghir said he was herded into overcrowded prisons and denied food. He said he watched while others were buried alive and that hundreds of prisoners died in US bombardments of northern Afghanistan.
When US-led forces gained control of southern Kandahar in Afghanistan, Sanghir and several others were transferred there.
Sanghir's notice says he spent "18 days...in Kandahar where Americans were in complete charge of the camp. They shaved the head, beard and mustaches of all the prisoners".
It says he and others were not allowed to sleep or pray and were "kept in (an) inhuman environment".
"Others were made to stand in the cold winter outside and asked questions about al-Qaeda, Taliban and Osama bin Laden," it said.
Sanghir was taken to Guantanamo Bay in shackles and held there for about 10 months, the notice said.
He said his cell on Guantanamo Bay was 2m by 2m) and about 2.1m high. He called it a cage "normally available in zoos".
The notice accused US personnel in Guantanamo Bay of adding alcohol - forbidden by Islam - to prisoners' drinks.
Sanghir said he was initially in solitary confinement and not allowed to pray, until a hunger strike by inmates led to a relaxation of the rules.
He said he faced relentless questioning, almost entirely about Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda network.
Sanghir says he was held for eight days and later for another 16 in a dark, tiny cell with cold air constantly "chilling the body of the inmate" - a punishment for not being able to help investigations.
Sanghir's release proved he knew nothing about bin Laden or al-Qaeda, the notice said.
It claims that for 10 months while in American custody at Guantanamo, Sanghir "suffered mental shock, financial loss, physical victimisation, estrangement and religious victimization".
He wants $10m for mental agony and another $400 000 for debts incurred by his family while he was in jail and damage to his sawmill business, it said.
- AP
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