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Investigation Detainees Report Abuse in Jails
WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Of the nearly 700 people who have been detained since September 11th in connection with the investigation into that day's deadly terrorist attacks, many are reporting violations of their human and civil rights, according to U.S. newspapers.
Even their lawyers are often unable to get information on their own clients, a report by the
Los Angeles Times said.
One lawyer, who represents three Mauritanian men who were detained on immigration violations with a group of 37 others two weeks after the attacks because one of them was supposedly a pilot, has yet to meet his clients, the
Times said.
A Washington Post article Monday said that the level of secrecy surrounding the detention of these men - from everything from immigration violations to material witness orders - is arousing concern among civil rights advocates.
An unknown number of "Middle Eastern" men being held in solitary confinement in Manhattan's Metropolitan Correctional Center are not allowed to contact each other, their families, and only occasionally their lawyers, the
Post said.
One man, 23-year-old Yazeed Al-Salmi, was detained as a material witness and was released last week after testifying before a grand jury about his encounter with one of the suspected hijackers, the
Post article reported.
"They don't call you by name. . . . They call you [expletive] terrorist," Al-Salmi, a Saudi student from San Diego, said of his jail guards. During his "humiliating and terrifying" detention, the Post said, he missed three weeks of school and was evicted from his apartment.
Al-Salmi said that on September 23rd, FBI agents woke him up by banging on the door. He said he was thrown against the wall, and heard only that he was a "material witness" before he was taken away. Although he was told early on that he was not a suspect, Al-Salmi said in the article, he was not allowed to see his family and was deprived of a toothbrush and shower.
Although it is less clear how long a material witness may legally be held, those held under immigration violations can be held nearly indefinitely, especially if deportation proceedings are begun, the
Post said.
"Some of these people have done nothing more than give someone a ride in their car," said a senior federal law enforcement official, who preferred not to have his name published in the
Post article, adding that some are held for more than a week without being able to contact a lawyer or family members.
The L.A. Times contacted several defense lawyers and civil rights monitors in an attempt to find out more about the detainees and their treatment, and the paper said every single contact complained that their clients had been detained too long and most had suffered some form of mistreatment or unwarranted adversity.
In its report, the Times briefly detailed the cases of detainees in Mississippi, New York, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Texas, in which prisoners were abused, beaten by other inmates, prevented from making phone calls and meeting with lawyers or deprived of basic cell comforts like blankets or mattresses.
A 20-year-old Pakistani student, Hasnain Javed, was detained and admitted to police that he had overstayed his visa by more than two years, the
Times report said. His fellow inmates were not pleased to see him, and threatened to tell the guard he had been shouting anti-American slogans.
Indeed, afterwards, the sheriff blamed Javed himself for the incident, telling the
Times that the investigation showed "he was making derogatory comments about the United States."
But Javed said he did nothing of the sort. At first, he said he was hit in the face, causing a tooth to chip, but when he called for help over the intercom, he got no response, and the other prisoners continued to punch and kick him. They attacked him again at night, the article said, pulling him from his bunk and stripping him naked, holding him down and beating him again.
Javed was eventually taken for first aid treatment, and was later transferred to another jail and released three days afterwards.
The Times article said that U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who has spearheaded new anti-terrorism legislation that gives wider authorities to law enforcement officials for cracking down on "suspected terrorists," insists that detainees' rights have not been abused.
"This Justice Department will never waver in our defense of the Constitution nor relent in our defense of civil rights," the article quoted Ashcroft as saying to the House Judiciary Committee last month. "The American spirit that rose from the rubble in New York knows no prejudice and defies division by race, ethnicity or religion."
But an Immigration and Naturalization Service district director in Texas, Anne Estrada, admitted to the
Times that such problems do exist for some detainees being held at local jails.
"Sometimes there are some misunderstandings and miscommunications about what our standards are, and sometimes we have to reach out to the county jails so they understand," Estrada said.
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