CAIRO, March 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – A special report, issued by Amnesty International, said that some detainees in U.S. jails have been subjected to verbal and physical abuse.

The report also said they have been denied access to lawyers and were given poor health care in the months following the September 11 attacks.

Although the report notes some recent improvements in New Jersey, where most of the 326 detainees still in custody are being held, it cites continuing problems with the way detainees are being treated.

In the two months following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, more than 1,200 non-U.S. nationals were taken into custody in the U.S., in nationwide sweeps for possible suspects. 

Partial data released by the government last November revealed that most were men of Arab or South Asian origin detained for immigration violations. Another 100 or so were charged with criminal offences, none directly relating to the events of 11 September, the Amnesty report said.

Six months on, some 300 people arrested in the post September 11 sweeps are believed to remain in the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). An unknown number of others have been deported or released on bail, sometimes after months in custody.

This report examines the circumstances of these detentions, following an earlier Memorandum Amnesty International (AI) submitted to the U.S. government in November 2001, in which AI raised concern about reports of incommunicado detention, harsh custody conditions and a lack of public information on those held, the report added.

"This is what we've been saying all along," said Sohail Mohammed, a Clifton immigration lawyer, who has represented several of the New Jersey detainees.

"Now we have a report from an outside, independent, respected organization that says the same thing. Maybe the authorities will realize this wasn't all made up by hotshot attorneys or complaining families."

Karen Kraushaar, a spokeswoman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said the agency has "provided appropriate conditions of custody for the detainees arrested as part of the investigation of the terrorist attack" of September 11.

"Anyone who is currently in INS custody has violated the immigration laws of the United States," Kraushaar added. "INS has very clearly spelled out standards that allow for the appropriate, safe and humane conditions of detention of individuals in INS custody."

Spokesmen for the Passaic and Hudson jails did not return messages seeking comment.

The report is based on information about more than 200 cases across the U.S. compiled through interviews with attorneys, detainees and their relatives and a review of documents and other reports. Last month, its representatives visited the Hudson County Jail in Kearny and the Passaic County Jail in Paterson.

The most serious accusations involved allegations of physical abuse of detainees by guards in the Passaic jail from September through November "when there is alleged to have been some racial tension in the jail." The report said a detainee, who spoke no English and was slow to comply with an order to get out of bed, had his head rammed into a table by a guard, chipping a tooth.

Amnesty International (AI) report also said the AI remains deeply concerned that, although they are not charged with crimes, many post September 11 detainees are held in punitive conditions in jails, sometimes alongside people charged or convicted of criminal offences. 

AI has received reports of cruel treatment, including prolonged solitary confinement, heavy shackling of detainees (including use of chains and leg shackles) during visits or court appearances and lack of adequate outdoor exercise. There have also been allegations of physical and verbal abuse.