Briton Accuses American Captors
Freed Guantánamo Prisoner Also Condemns British Government
Tania Branigan, The Guardian

A second Briton released from Guantánamo Bay last night savaged the United States for gross breaches of human rights which he alleged included interrogation at gunpoint.

Tarek Dergoul, 26, from London, also condemned the British government for allowing his continued detention in Bagram and Kandahar in Afghanistan and then the US base in Cuba and called for the release of remaining detainees.
The former care worker is in poor physical and mental health after his two-year ordeal. He is believed to have had an arm amputated and have difficulty walking.

"Tarek Dergoul has started to try to give his family and solicitor, Louise Christian, an account of the horrific things which happened to him during detention at Bagram, Kandahar and Guantánamo Bay," said a statement released last night.

"This has included an account of botched medical treatment, interrogation at gunpoint, beatings and inhumane conditions.

"[He] condemns the US and UK governments for allowing these gross breaches of human rights and demands the release of all the other detainees."

It added: "Tarek finds it very difficult to talk about these things and his family believe his mental health has been severely affected by the trauma he has suffered. We therefore appeal to the media to respect his privacy and not to try and find him."

Mr Dergoul is not expected to speak to journalists in the foreseeable future.

The accusations will fuel international concern about the detention camp, coming after claims of punishment beatings and psychological torture by another Briton.

Jamal Udeen, also known as Jamal al-Harith, told the Mirror: "The whole point... was to get to you psychologically. The beatings were not nearly as bad as the psychological torture - bruises heal after a week but the other stuff stays with you."

He also said the men were asked to sign a confession that they were linked to the Taliban and al-Qaida before their release. He refused: "I would rather have stayed in Guantánamo than sign that paper."

A Pentagon spokeswoman described the allegations as "simply lies", while the secretary of state, Colin Powell, said yesterday he believed the US treated detainees "in a very, very humanitarian way". He told ITV1's Tonight With Trevor McDonald: "Because we are Americans, we don't abuse people in our care."

US authorities have refused to allow independent human rights observers into the military base in Cuba. The International Committee of the Red Cross has access but does not comment publicly.

"If the problems are less than have been described, [the US] has everything to gain from allowing people to look into conditions and talk about them," said Steve Crawshaw from Human Rights Watch.

"We have obviously got no way of knowing whether the allegations are true or not, but they are extremely serious and reinforce the need for access. Human Rights Watch has never received permission."

Mr Udeen, 37, from Manchester, described being beaten up and put in isolation for a month for refusing an injection because guards would not tell him what it was.

"After a while, we stopped asking for human rights - we wanted animal rights," he said. The Mirror reported that he now stoops because his shackles were too short.

In a separate interview with the ITV1 programme, shown last night, he described be coming so used to detention that news of his release scared him.

"I thought, I've been in a cage for two years. I sort of didn't want to leave," he said.

Mr Udeen said he was interviewed 40 times by American agents, for up to 12 hours at a time, and nine times by MI5 and British consular officials.

Four Britons and at least three British residents are among more than 600 detainees still held at the camp. The home secretary, Jack Straw, has said the government will press the US for the British nationals - Feroz Abbasi, Martin Mubanga, Richard Belmar and Moazzam Begg - to be released or given a fair trial.

Mr Belmar's solicitor, Muddassar Arani, said she was "sickened" by allegations about the camp.