3 Brutalised by American captors at Guantanamo Bay: "Three Britons released from Guantanamo Bay last week claim they were interrogated by the British Secret Service, as well as brutalised by their American captors.
Rhuhel Ahmed, 22, Asif Iqbal, 22, and Shafiq Rasul, 26, all from Tipton, West Midlands, alleged that MI5 officers and Foreign Office officials took part in some of the 200 interrogations during their two-year detention at the US naval base in Cuba. They earlier claimed that they were beaten by US guards and ordered to answer questions at gunpoint. For three months they claimed they were held in solitary confinement when they had to survive on tiny portions of food, described by one of the men as 'nouvelle cuisine American-style'.
The boyhood friends, in interviews with two Sunday newspapers, said that they were visited at least six times by MI5 and Foreign Office staff. Mr Rasul said: 'Every time the Foreign Office [staff] came, we asked about what was going on, and whether we had solicitors. His reply was, 'I don't know, all I know is what's been on TV. Your case hasn't been on TV'.' But their detention had received massive publicity and their families' lawyers had been in regular contact with the Foreign Office.
Mr Rasul was visited in September by the Foreign Office and MI5. When Mr Rasul asked about his legal status, the Foreign Office official told him: 'You should ask the MI5 guy who's coming tomorrow.' He did, but the MI5 officer said: 'You should have asked Martin from the Foreign Office.'"
- posted by geoff @ #