Guantanamo inmate tells of worsening conditions

An Australian terror suspect being held at Guantanamo Bay today told relatives that conditions at the prison camp had worsened.

David Hicks said he had not been told about a landmark US court ruling that cancelled his proposed military trial, his lawyer, David McLeod, said.

Mr McLeod, who sat in on the two-hour call, said 31-year-old Mr Hicks sounded “very, very depressed”. It was only the fourth conversation he has been allowed to have with his family since arriving at Guantánamo in early 2002.

Mr Hicks was captured in Afghanistan, where he was allegedly training with the Taliban.
He told his family that the guards at the prison had become “very tough” since three inmates committed suicide last month, and said he thought other inmates were being punished for the deaths.

Mr McLeod said Mr Hicks was not suicidal, but he could understand why the three dtainees had killed themselves.

“We’re being pushed, pushed, pushed all the time - don’t be surprised if things happen,” Mr McLeod quoted Mr Hicks as saying in an apparent warning that there could be more suicide attempts.

Mr Hicks said conditions had worsened significantly over the past few months, and that he was being kept in solitary confinement inside a concrete cell for up to 24 hours a day.

He said all furniture had been removed from his cell and that he had been forced to sleep on the floor until guards gave him a thin mattress around two weeks ago.

“He has to lie on the floor, the air conditioning is kept on full, he has very few clothes, and he shivers lying on the floor,” Mr McLeod said.

He added that Mr Hicks was allowed to keep one book for religious purposes. “All his legal books and notes have been taken away from him. All his school books and school notes have been taken away from him,” he said.

“All his letters and cards have been taken away from him and he’s not receiving any. He has no contact at all with the outside world.”

Apart from his book and mattress, Mr McLeod said Mr Hicks was allowed to keep only a toothbrush and toothpaste inside the cell, and had to ask for toilet paper when he needed it.

Although he has denied charges of terrorist conspiracy, attempted murder and aiding the enemy, Mr Hicks was one of 10 prisoners selected to face a US military commission.

However, the US supreme court last week declared the tribunals illegal because they violate US military law and international standards for dealing with people captured in armed conflicts.

“He wasn’t aware of the supreme court decision,” Mr McLeod said, adding that Mr Hicks had given little reaction to the news.

He said the prisoner was also unaware of a British high court decision to grant him British citizenship on the grounds that his mother was born in London.

Mr Hicks is due to meet his Pentagon-appointed lawyer, Major Michael Mori, at the camp later this week, Mr McLeod added.

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006